ON my signal, unleash hell.

Orange Emus co-coach Graydon Staniforth has given his troops permission to throw caution to the wind when the greens travel to Bathurst to tackle the in-form Bulldogs in a Blowes Clothing Cup blockbuster tomorrow.

Somewhat crippled by injury and unavailability throughout the first half of 2015, Staniforth’s red-hot back line is slowly coming back to full strength and when NSW Country colts five-eighth Adam Perri and influential skipper Nigel Staniforth take to Ashwood Park together tomorrow, it’ll be for the first time in five weeks.

Only inside centre Simon Badgery is missing from the back-line, while scintillating loose-head prop Matt Findlay is also missing from the side.

Even still, Rob Thorburn, easily Emus’ best player throughout the first nine rounds of the 2015 season and a damaging ball runner, is a more than adept replacement in the midfield.

“It’s probably as close to the best back line we can have,” Staniforth said ahead of the Bulldogs showdown.

“With guys playing in their best position, I’d expect our decision making and direction to be a bit better this week, and that’s not taking anything away from the guys that did the job against City. 

“But I think the difference for us this week will be our back line. 

“We played last week’s game pretty conservatively, and I think with a few back we’ll be able to play a bit more rugby.”

Emus defeated the Bulldogs in round one 45-28 at Endeavour Oval, but have since struggled maintaining intensity over the course of 80 minutes and find themselves in fourth place at the turn of the regular season.

Holding on to that top-five berth won’t be easy either.

After running over the top of Emus late in a 33-10 derby victory, the Lions hold command in first place on 40 points, with the Bulldogs (36), Cowra (32), Emus (32) and Mudgee (27) rounding out the finals places so far.

Defending premiers Dubbo, however, loom large.

And with bullocking centre Filisone Pauta returning to bolster the sixth-placed Roos, who have 26 points, there’s six teams now vying for five places.

Knocking off Bathurst is crucial in Emus’ bid to snatch a top-three berth and keep Mudgee and Dubbo at bay.

“It’s a big game for us,” Staniforth said.

“From what I can see the top six is pretty set, so we’re all jostling for those five places now.

“We played them in the first round and probably won that game pretty convincingly. Their team hasn’t changed but we know every game we play the Bulldogs in is going to be physical.”

Emus and Bulldogs kick-off at 3.15pm.

ORANGE EMUS: 1 Steve Fergus, 2 Tom Goolagong, 3 Nas Havealeta, 4 Nick Hughes-Clapp, 5 Sam McLean, 6 Andrew Cosgrove, 7 Scott Udy, 8 Alo Finau, 9 TJ Cunynghame, 10 Adam Perri, 11 Carter Hirini, 12 Rob Thorburn, 13 Nigel Staniforth, 14 Tom Green, 15 Isaac White.