IT might not feel like a grand final rematch, but don't doubt for one second Bathurst Bulldogs' desire to beat fierce Ferguson Cup rivals Orange Emus this Saturday.
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Bulldogs are hungry to win their first home game of the season, hungry to bounce back from an opening round 36-21 defeat to Dubbo Kangaroos and hungry to show they can again be a contender in 2020.
"Absolutely we want to win, we were talking about it and saying how much we want to win," Bulldogs skipper Ali Stanford said.
"We love playing Orange, out there on the field it's pretty much all head-to-head."
The Bathurst Bulldogs side which will line up at Ashwood Park on Saturday will be different to the one which beat Emus 34-28 on grand final day, while the greens also have new personnel.
That, along with the fact season 2020 has been impacted by COVID-19, means the build up has not been typical of a grand final rematch for Bulldogs. Still, the Bathurst squad are anticipating a physical encounter.
"it doesn't really feel like that [rematch] for two different reasons - because of COVID and because we've both got different teams. I know Emus are missing a few, especially Em McDonald their nine, they'll really miss her," Stanford said.
"We've also got a few out this weekend with other commitments, I guess a lot of people never thought we'd get this far because of COIVD. But it will be a good, tough game as always with them."
The mission for Bulldogs will not only lie in negating Emus' strong forward pack and containing some talented backs, but making sure they start with greater intensity than they did against the Roos.
"This week we are working on obviously our defence, we know we have to be strong in the middle because they have a very strong forward pack," Stanford said.
"If we took anything out of that game last week it was we can come back. We were down pretty heavily, but we turned it around and put it together in the last 10 minutes. If there was another 10 minutes I believe we could have pushed them over the edge."
Kick-off is at 11.40am.
