Lions' Harry Taberner and Emus' Nigel Staniforth can spend all the time in the world going over the ins and outs of the looming grudge match, but it will all count for nought if they don't put in a full 80 minutes of work.

It's a trend that's haunted both sides in 2021 as Orange City coughed up a 22-10 half-time lead at Forbes in round three, while Emus let a 30-point lead dissolve into an 11-point victory against the same side in round two.

Starting with City, Viv Paasi was understandably irate with his side's complacency in the second stanza at Grinsted Oval, and Taberner received the mentor's messages at training this week.

"We're just focusing on playing 80 minutes of footy," Taberner said.

"In the first half last week, we showed the potential that we've got but it's about getting past that first 40 and continuing to play well.

"Even in the first week against Dubbo, we started slowly and came home massively to win."

But for City, it's going to take more than a wire-to-wire effort to topple the ladder-leading premiers as Pete Bromley's Emus appear to be getting more dangerous as the weeks go by.

According to Taberner, the reason so many sides fall short against the premiers isn't because they don't have the ability to beat them, rather due to the style of fight they fall into.

"We want to play our pace of football this weekend instead of getting into their grind," he said.

"We're going into this season with a slightly different structure."

After starting the season with somewhat of a shock loss at Ashwood Park, Nigel Staniforth and the Orange Emus have slowly worked their way back to peak form.

But, even after a 38-7 win over Dubbo in round four, the veteran sharpshooter still sees room for improvement.

"After the first round we've started to build into the season nicely but we still aren't playing good footy for 80 minutes," he said.

"Last week was better but it was still only about 55 minutes. We're making improvements every round, though.

"Our scrum's become a lot better and so have our combinations and because of that, our defence has improved too."

Five-eighth Gus Roberts has been somewhat of a boom recruit for the greens and Staniforth's noticed the massive impact he's made.

"He's an extremely classy player and he's an ex Super Rugby player, and a good one at that," he said.

"He can communicate at a really high level and he's taken a bit of pressure off me."

City and Emus will square off at Wade Park at 5pm.

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