Coming up against Forbes Platypi last weekend, the Lions women put in a gritty performance at Pride Park to secure a 22-5 win on City's Ladies Day.

The victory marked a terrific turnaround for the side after suffering a 61-0 loss to Dubbo Roos in round one.

"We were so, so happy," City's Holly Jones said.

"Working on the ruck ... helped us a lot, getting over and securing the ball, that was something we were working on and struggled with in the first game and our efforts really paid off on the weekend."

With four try-scorers, including herself, Jones was particularly happy to see new recruit Arahia Allen cross over the line for her first.

"Arahia is our new prop and it was really good to get her in and build a bit of confidence in her first game," she said.

Round four's fixture on Saturday at Endeavour Oval will bring both Emus and City together for the first time with Jones wanting to see her side maintain the same levels of improvement.

"We're very excited and just looking at bringing similar efforts to this game," she said.

"We're ready for a challenge though, ready to put in and hopefully get the same result this weekend."

After keeping Forbes to single figures on the weekend, Jones added that defence will be a key focus coming into the derby after Emus won in close contests last year.

"It was probably one of the closer games we had last season, they beat us by one try but I think it's looking promising for us but we'll see. Securing that ball is something we're really focusing on," she said.

"Defence is something we're pretty set on, it's probably one of our stronger points.

"Our attack has improved a lot, just looking at scores from Forbes and the game before at Dubbo, it shows our efforts at training."