At the end of may, Halfback Emily Kennedy told the Central Western Daily that the primary focus for the season was to make sure the young crop of girls have fun, and while forward Claire Baker supports that objective, she thinks the side of capable of producing winning results as well.

Baker's been playing contact rugby union for roughly the same amount of time as Kennedy and says the turnouts at training, as well as the players on board, leads her to believe it will be a prosperous season at Pride Park for the ladies.

"If we can have a bit of fun and get some experience then that will allow us to build each year and continue to get better and better," Baker said.

"I think we are ready to be competitive, though. But, it's not as much about winning as it is about leaving everything out on the field each week.... that's the goal we have as a team

"As a team we're looking quite good and our combinations are looking really good. We're pretty confident."

The women's draw will line up with the men's draw, meaning Baker will enjoy a bye in the opening round before kicking the season off against Kangaroos and the prop's happy to have a first-up week off.

"I think it's a bit of a blessing in disguise for us to have that bye first," she said.

"As much as we want to get out onto the field, we get an extra week to work on stuff we need to work on."

Everyone knows that Bulldogs are this year's competition benchmark after they took out the title in 2020 and even though City doesn't clash with them until the halfway point of the season, Baker's already excited about going up against the best the West has to offer.

"I love playing Bathurst," she said.

"It's always a really good challenge and you improve the most when you play the more experience teams.

"They're always giving us advice during the games.... they're really helpful."

The numbers at City training have been encouraging and that might be attributable to the new mentor the Lions have as Damien Maloney's come on board for his maiden year with the women and to reunited with Baker.

"He's really good... he trained me when I was younger" she said.

"He has a way of coaching that just works and he doesn't take any crap from us so that's good."

The Orange City Lions women will open their 2020 campaign with a home game against Dubbo Kangaroos on Saturday July 18, followed by an all-Orange affair against Emus at Endeavour Oval the ensuing week.