AFL Central West: Huge game for Bathurst Giants against Orange Tigers as they seek top three finish

Win away against Orange Tigers this Saturday and they're into the finals. Lose and they would have to travel to play the Dubbo Demons in a make-or-break last round clash - where a win may still not guarantee finals football.

When the Giants look back on this Saturday's game they want it to be a story of how they claimed back-to-back wins for the first time this season and how they set themselves up for a finals showdown with Dubbo.

But to do that they need to draw upon the excellent football which gave them victory over the Demons a week earlier - one of their best performances of the year to date.

Giants' injured captain Shaun Noyen was thrilled to watch on as the team put that solid game together, and he believes more of the same quality of football will take the team close against the Tigers.

"That did a lot of good for our morale because we need to win the rest of our games to have the chance of hosting a preliminary final," he said.

"It was great to see us get the fundamentals going well. We were winning the midfield contests and just running away with the ball. We were doing so much better than Dubbo there. Our tackling pressure was outrageous as well."

Waratahs is still expected to play a little slower than normal following the recent rain - Bushrangers and Tigers each struggled to play a high-paced game there last round - but the size remains an advantage for the young Giants side.

Giants coach Mark Kennedy has often commented on how the ground tends to let the team play their natural game, and Noyen agrees with that sentiment.

"It definitely suits the way we play, with our young fellas happy to run around and doing what they need to do," he said.

"The boys have stepped up a lot. They're really physical on the ball and they've just got no fear at the moment. They're pummelling anyone in the way."

Giants had their best attacking performance of the season last week with 14 goals and 15 behinds in their win over Dubbo.

Their victories in midfield contests saw the Giants rack up inside 50s and attempts on goal - with the only downside being the accuracy in front of the posts.

For Noyen that's an area to focus on ahead of the Tigers clash.

"We're getting the ball forward well from our centre contests, which is good, but we need to learn to convert," he said.

"The scoring shots were 14-15 so we need to be converting more of those behinds into goals and that way we'll be able to be that bit more dominant."

There's still a significant percentage difference between the Demons and Giants so the Bathurst men are keen not only to win but to win well.

"Bushrangers already have the grand final set so it's about making that top three, but ideally that top two, because then we get that home prelim," Noyen said.

"At the rate it's going it could be a Dubbo versus Giants prelim final but we don't want to be travelling up there for that game. They're very strong up there."

Giants are expected to make little to no changes ahead of the clash, although Noyen hinted at the possibility of several former players coming back into the team after they gained clearance to play.