Only for about 40 minutes though.

"That's the beauty of the game. Both sides will go out there, play hard rugby in good spirits and try to get one over the other but then once we're off the field we are all really good friends," Emus stalwart Amanda Ferguson said.

There's little doubt that hard rugby will be a feature of Saturday's round nine clash of the heavyweights too, the fourth-placed Emus are just four points adrift of the undefeated, competition-leading Bulldogs.

The Mel Waterford-led Bathurst side are also the only outfit to have beaten Ferguson's troops in 2019 too.

"It's a big one, for sure," Ferguson said.

"It was round four when we played them last time and we've come a long way as a team since then in terms of coming together and building combinations, but also individually as well.

"That works both ways of course and we're expecting an even better Bulldogs side than we faced last time around."

That's actually a pretty ominous thought, Bulldogs being better than they were in round three, because they were superb that day.

Emus were strong too, but weight of possession worked against the greens and Bulldogs reaped the reward to win 26-19.

Jakiya Whitfield scored all four of the Bathurst side's tries that day and it remains to be seen whether she'll play on Saturday but even so, Ferguson said her side "can't afford to focus on one player".

"They're very good right across the paddock, everywhere really, so we can't be trying to shut down any one player," she said, with stopping Bulldog's second-chance play crucial to her side's hopes.

"First-up contact, winning that and making sure the tackles stick is a big one. Last time around we just didn't have much of the ball really, we didn't have enough possession, so we'll be trying to stay patient and retain the ball a bit more, that's a big focus."

Saturday's clash kicks off at 11.45am, at Endeavour Oval.