Emus ended the Bulldogs' brilliant run of success on their home turf with a hard-earned 22-11 Blowes Clothing Cup victory at Ashwood Park on Saturday.

It was the first time the Bulldogs First XV had lost there since June 17, 2017. On that occasion Emus won as well.

The 11-point win comes on the back of a 48-8 thumping of Forbes in the opening round of the revamped 2020 season and ensured Emus sit on top of the ladder heading into next week's derby with the Lions.

"It's a good start to the season, getting two in a row," Bromley said.

"Playing at any footy ground, it doesn't matter where it its, it's a matter of just putting it together. We were so close last year, so it was nice to win.

"Defence is all about attitude. You can talk all you want about technique, but if you want to make the tackle, that's an attitude thing. When you're tired the attitude generally falls, but in the last few minutes of the last half we really stuck to it and got the defence going well."

Saturday's loss in a rematch of the 2019 grand final made it two defeats in a row to start the season for Bulldogs and number 8 Peter Fitzsimmons admitted it hurt a little more given their impressive home streak ended too.

"I think that was our first lost in 24 games here, so it does sting because we never like losing here. But we've lost here before and we'll lose here again I suppose, that's the way footy is," he said.

"But we definitely like to keep this the dog house, we don't like when people come here and take ours.

"Whenever Emus are on the paddock they're ones to watch, so we have to lift our game and pick up from there. The next game [against them] will be at their home ground and we'll try and take it back from there."

Bulldogs weren't without their chances to win the match, they created overlaps more than once and strung together a number of phases inside Emus' 22.

But strong defence from the greens and at times lacking execution in back line movements hurt the Bathurst side.

"I think it's our continuity, knowing who's inside, who's outside with the new faces, but there are a lot of old faces too that need to be picking up that slack," Fitzsimmons admitted.

"The shots were pretty heavy out there, I thought both teams were defending well. We've seen both teams play better than that, but it's early, we'll get there."

Emus dominated the opening exchanges and should have scored the game's first try, but a Justin Mobbs intercept meant the hosts enjoyed an early lead.

Emus winger Harry Cummins scored soon after and penalty goals from both teams meant the scores were locked at 8-all at the break, but from then on it was basically all Emus.

An early Will Oldham penalty goal gave the Dogs some hope, but tries to Tom Joseph and Sam Greatbatch put the icing on the cake for Emus.

Bulldogs came at Emus in the final minutes, but the visitors held on and it was that sort of desperation in defence which pleased Bromley most.

That, and the return of some heavy-hitters in Emus' set-piece.

"We've been working hard on the scrum because it is a key part of the game, if you dominate the scrummage you generally win the game. It's good to have Nas Havealeta back because he missed last week, that give us a good-four front-row unit as such," Bromley said.