Bathurst Bulldogs not taking Orange City lightly in first-plays-last match

Bulldogs travel to Orange off a convincing victory over the Dubbo Kangaroos but won't be taking the Lions lightly.

Orange City may still be without a win to their name in 2019 but calling them a 'pushover' side wouldn't be paying respect to the efforts they've put in, especially over the past month.

They drew with cross-city rivals Orange Emus and last round got within four points of the Cowra Eagles, who are currently running third on the ladder.

Those aren't the results of a team running on fumes, they're the results of a team to respect, according to Oxley.

"City were up until late in that game when Cowra scored. There was obviously a lot emotion attached to that game but that will only get you so far so their performance must be significantly improving," he said.

"For us it's about staying on the job, make sure we build and remain focused in the lead up to semi-finals football with four weeks to go."

Bulldogs showed plenty of that focus in last week's 40-12 win over the 'Roos.

Ever since their sole loss of the season, against the Emus, the Bathurst men have been rebuilding the right way.

"We needed to bounce back. We had a great game against Forbes and followed that up with another good game against Dubbo," Oxley said.

"Dubbo was another risk because they'd been building. They had won three of their last four games.

"The first half cemented that win and we got away to a commanding lead. We'd like to continue to play that sort of football against every side but that will take a lot of discipline."

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The Lions were badly seeking victory last week against the Eagles, given that in the previous matchup their captain Josh Tremain was punched in the head and was subsequently ruled out for the remainder of the season.

"City's backline is functioning quite well and their pack is quite strong. There's a lot of points in them," Oxley said.

"Playing without Josh Tremain was a challenge initially and we caught them in the week after the episode with Cowra [in a 60-0 win].

"They've now stabilised and got used to playing football without him.

"Viv Paasi is a fantastic coach and he's got the club back on track. He'd have his own goals and targets for this match to try and cruel our momentum so we've got to be ready for that."

Bulldogs have named a largely unchanged team for their trip to Orange.

Harry Peacock comes back into the starting team at flanker while Peter Fitzsimmons steps back up to the front row.

Brad Glasson's injury sees Adam Miles named at scrum half to partner Scott Johnston but the rest of the Bulldogs backline remains the same.