WILL it be third time lucky for the Bathurst Bulldogs against the Orange Emus in Saturday’s Blowes Clothing Cup qualifying semi-final or will the hoodoo continue?

That’s the question the Bulldogs face as they travel to Endeavour Oval where they will try to get the better of Emus, something they’ve failed to do in two attempts this year.

Everything changes in finals football, however, and with no more table to worry about it can be a huge weight off a team’s shoulders.

With a win setting up a chance to play for a grand final spot against Orange City, Bulldogs co-coach Scott Johnston said his team needs to learn their lessons from the past two Emus meetings.

“We get that second chance thanks to finishing in the top three so we go into this with nothing to lose,” he said.

“They’ve started well in both those games and we’ve always struggled to get ourselves back on the same terms, always behind the eight ball. That will be the key to this match, if we can get that start.”

VIDEO: Michelle Cook and Matt Findlay preview this weekend's games:

The sides met at Endeavour in the opening round of the season and Emus played consistent football across the 80 minutes to take a 45-28 victory.

In the return match at Ashwood Park, Bulldogs had to do too much defending and Emus won 41-13.

Johnston said the Bulldogs have to discover their creative spark in order to get past the Emus defence.

“They’re very good defensively and that’s one thing we’ve got to deal with. We also didn’t get a lot of ball against them early on in the last match when we had to do all the defending. We need to work hard to turn that around,” he said.

Bulldogs will be boosted by the return of players missing during last week’s 43-10 win over CSU Bathurst.

“Peter Fitzsimmons and Mark Donnelly are back in the team for us this week. They’re two class players. The team gets a lot of enthusiasm from them and both are solid in defence,” Johnston said.

Fitzsimmons returns from a one-game suspension while Donnelly is back from injury.

First grade action at Endeavour Oval gets started from 3.15pm.

BATHURST BULLDOGS: 1 Aaron Booby, 2 Mark Donnelly, 3 Sean Fogarty, 4 Izaak Breen, 5 Lachlan Bull, 6 Jono Healey, 7 Adam Dwyer, 8 Peter Fitzsimmons, 9 Dylan Sinclair, 10 Steven Locke (c), 11 Kurt Weekes, 12 Josh Lees, 13 Tom Joseph, 14 Fali Liva, 15 Scott Johnston.