AFL Central West: Bathurst Bushrangers look to emulate grand final result in derby clash with Giants

Bushrangers' crushing 85-point win over Orange Tigers wasn't full of many negatives for the Bathurst club, whose accuracy in front of goal and moments of impatience in the midfield were the only sour notes on an otherwise dominant day.

But they know there's another classic derby in store this Saturday given the way that Giants ran over the top of Dubbo Demons in round one.

Bushrangers co-coach Matt Archer said last week's big opening round success was an indication that the team is already keyed in to their game plan for 2021.

"They're always good, competitive games against Giants. I'm sure they'll be ready to take that step further this year and it should be a physical match," he said.

"Last week was a great starting point for the season. I think we laid a great foundation for the way that we want to play this year. There's a lot of positives to come out of it. At times we might have panicked across the middle of the ground but it's early stages.

"It's not so much about winning or losing at this stage of the year, it's about getting the little things right."

Bushrangers' premiership-winning sides in the men's top tier haven't lost a game since June 2019.

The Giants did come closest to troubling them during last year's winning streak and they'll fancy their chance of providing plenty of headaches for the Bushrangers given the way they started the season.

"They've had a couple comes back who will help them," he said.

"There's Mitch Taylor, who reads the ball really well and will take intercept marks all day if you kick down the line to him.

"It changes their dynamic a little bit. They'll be looking to run and carry the football so we just have to try and close that down and be smart when we're using the football.

"We haven't changed too much either. Our core group is back. We know each others' games well so it will just be about who can execute best."

The match gets underway at George Park 2 from 2.15pm this Saturday.

It rounds off a big day of Bushrangers vs Giants action, following on from men's second tier and senior women's clashes at the same ground.

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