The weekend's launch acted as the perfect precursor to the Super W action at the Bathurst ground between the NSW Waratahs and the Melbourne Rebels and began a big day's celebration of rugby in the city.

There has been no change to the Central West's two tier setup this season.

The same 12 clubs will be split evenly across the competitions, with Orange Emus and Narromine Gorillas set to defend their respective Blowes Clothing Cup and New Holland Agriculture Cup titles.

A bumper field of 15 teams has been confirmed for the women's Westfund-Ferguson Cup while Dubbo Rhinos and Narromine will join Bathurst Bulldogs, Emus, Orange City and Dubbo Kangaroos in the colts competition.

When it comes to the Blowes Clothing Cup the big question is whether anyone can put a stop to an Emus first grade team who look just as strong on paper as they did in 2018.

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Bulldogs showed signs of promise in last year's 30-18 grand final defeat - and beat Emus during the regular season - but they're searching for the missing piece of the puzzle to take them to the next step.

Central West Blue Bulls captain and Bulldogs' Peter Fitzsimmons is on board again as the club skipper for 2019 and has being encouraged by the team's pre-season build up.

"We've had a big preparation as a squad. We haven't picked teams yet but we've got quite a strong squad together," he said.

"Having our first hit out of the year being a tough trial against Merewether was a good start to the year. We know where we need to be.

"To fall short at the pointy end of the year was disappointing. We've spoken about last year where there were only two or three games where we went completely away from our structure and one of those was the grand final.

"That was a learning experience for our younger guys and they'll take a lot away from that for this season. Across the park we've built on last year and become stronger in a lot of areas. We've done plenty of work on our scrum and lineout."

The main positive Emus captain Nigel Staniforth has seen through the pre-season is his side's attitude. 

"We're lucky we have foundations from the last few years. The guys are keen and love their rugby and they're determined to get to training," he said.

"We've probably picked up four genuine first graders and also in second grade there's a few guys who you could have flipped a coin to see if they could be playing first grade.

"Kyran Bubb's moved on so we've got a different style of 10, so that's handy. There's Matt Campbell, who played twos, and they'll fight it out over the next few weeks.

"It's a hard competition now over the rounds with no easy games."

Bulldogs have a tough round one away trip to the Dubbo Kangaroos to start their season.

In the other opening round contests Emus face Forbes Platypi and Orange City play the Cowra Eagles.