Pete Bromley wants his ladder-leading Emus to get better every week

Endless complications with the weather-ravaged Endeavour Oval surface which forced a home game against Bulldogs to be moved to enemy territory, a cancer scare to the most influential and accomplished player on your roster which put him on the sidelines for over a month, and an ongoing injury toll that's forced change after change to a league-best forward pack.

Not to mention the longest pre-season in history following a state-wide postponement of community sport thanks to COVID-19.

How have the men in green responded to said adversity? With flying colours.

Pete Bromley's orchestrated a perfect six-from-six start to his side's Blowes Clothing Cup campaign but knows to claim another title the greens can't afford to be complacent.

Emus will look to register a second win over rivals Orange City on Saturday as they're set for a round eight clash at Pride Park after dismantling Viv Paasi's men back in round three.

"It's been challenge after challenge for us so far," Bromley said.

"It was the longest pre-season in history but we're just focusing on ourselves and making sure we keep executing.

"Towards the end of our game against Bulldogs we got a little error-ridden and we're looking to get better and better in these last couple of games before finals time."

One of the disadvantages of such a short season is the lack of experimenting you can do before the semi finals but Bromley says there's still been a bit of trial and error throughout the first six weeks.

"We've made some variations to our game ... some have worked, some haven't," he said.

"Usually you've got 15 games to try new things but this year we've had to compress it.

"There's still some things we want to tweak and modify moving as we get towards the finals."

Those modifications are set to continue against Orange City on Saturday and, with the way the Lions have been travelling lately, Bromley's especially wary of their rivals.

"It's always a tough game against Orange City but even more so when you can see how much they're improving," he said.

"They're not going to be a team that will lie and they're a different team than what they were in round one."

As far as the on-field goals for the Emus in the looming derby, well it's more of the same. Big men, big men, big men.

"Every team wants to do the same thing and that's lay a platform in the forwards and then get some good ball to the backs," he said.

"The forwards are a good unit together and hopefully they can get some dominance."

The all-Orange blockbuster will kick-off at Pride Park at 3.15pm.