With the Cherrypickers defeating Brothers, Kangaroos and Tumut in their last three outings, Jeffery said his team was on alert.

“They have strung a few wins together so they must be going OK,” Jeffery said.

“Young has two front-rowers who go well and I think they have brought in some other recruits as well.

“It’s a big game for us.”

Young forwards Aaron Slater and Kyle Richens will keep Albury on its toes, particularly with Andrew Cowhan (broken thumb) and Andrew Smith (knee) out of action.

While Cowhan is hopeful of missing only two home and away matches, Thunder are sweating on the seriousness of Smith’s injury.

“He’s had an MRI and is waiting on the results,” he said.

“It’s a bit of a worry but we’ll wait and see.

“Hopefully it’s good news.”

Jeffery said the message had been simple at training after last weekend’s loss to premiership favourite Southcity at Greenfield Park.

“Our completion rates have to go up and our defence must be better,” he said.

“I thought we were pretty good for 20 minutes last week and then we let some really soft tries in.

“That was disappointing.”

While Cowhan and Smith will be missing, Thunder will welcome back bustling forward Joe Silafau.

Jeffery and David Cowhan will represent Riverina against Northern Rivers in the Tier 2 country championships at Dubbo on Saturday.

“There is going to be a bit of travelling but we will be staying at the Cowhans’ at Forbes to break up the trip,” Jeffery said.

In other matches, Tumbarumba will crash back to earth against Junee.

While the Greens scored a gutsy win over Cootamundra last weekend, the Diesels will be too sharp with Daniel Foley and Peter Little leading the way.

Kangaroos look set to fall short against Gundagai, Southcity should cruise to another win over Temora and Tumut play host to Cootamundra.