City kicked off its Westfund Ferguson Cup campaign with a comprehensive loss to Dubbo Kangaroos, while Emus fell at Bathurst against the reigning champion Bulldogs.

Emily Kennedy and Alex Walker both spoke to the Central Western Daily on Wednesday and were both certain of one thing - the girls won't need any motivation to get up for Saturday's showdown.

"We love a derby with the City girls," Walker said.

"We can't afford to not switch on like we did last week against Bulldogs. I've had a talk with some of the coaches and if we keep doing that, teams will smash us.

"Our head's definitely need to be in the game before we run onto the field."

Part of the problem during last week's loss to Bathurst was the amount of inexperience Emus have on their roster.

While the fresh talent will benefit the girls in green down the track, it can lead to slip ups.

"We need to get the new girls comfortable with the game," she said.

"I'd say about half of our players are new. It's not necessarily about the contactand the tackling but the rules as well.

"We'll focus on those things during our training session."

City skipper Emily Kennedy was more optimistic in the wake of her side's round two loss, suggesting the Roos' side they lost to might be the best team in the competition this year.

"I think they're the team to beat this year," Kennedy said.

"They have a couple of girls who play in the country team. Our girls really enjoyed being out there even though we copped a bit of a thumping.

'What happened on the field was left on the the field. The girls were happy to admit the mistakes they made and what needed to be improved."

For City, the work towards becoming better starts at training this week and the main focus for the Lions is on the defensive side of the ball.

"We need to improve our defensive set up," she said.

"We also need to maintain possession... a couple of times we lost the ball when we shouldn't have. We had some stupid mistakes in there that can be fixed.

"The derby always does give us a little bit of extra motivation. We're keen to have a good hit out against Emus."

While Saturday's clash will be fast and furious on the field, Kennedy knows both clubs have nothing but respect for each other outside of it.

"It's nice to be competitive on the field but as soon as you finish, you go back to being mates," she said.

The City and Emus girls will raise the curtains for the men's Blowes Clothing Cup clash on Saturday at 11.40am.