He is preparing his men to face stern competition from the Wombats.

Though the Bulldogs sit third on the ladder, 31 points ahead of Mudgee, and beat the Wombats 55-0 earlier this season, Pearce points to past seasons as a reason to be wary.

Last April Bulldogs only snuck home by four points when meeting Mudgee at Ashwood Park.

“The first round last year they gave us a terrible time, and the year before they really basically broke out and had a strong run home to the finals and no-one expected them to do that,” Pearce said.

“I am really not going to take this lightly and I think the guys are of the same opinion, they are a bit nervous about this one.”

Mudgee heads into the match on the back of its first win of the season, beating Parkes 17-13 last Saturday, while Pearce wants his Bulldogs to further improve on the performance that led them to a 71-5 victory over CSU the same afternoon.

“The back half of the first half [against CSU] we did drop our standards. I didn’t get too cranky at half-time, but I reminded them what they needed to be doing,” he said.

“We’ve issued a challenge, we all agree the challenge for us is to become an 80 minute football team this year and we haven’t done that. We’ve probably played 55 good minutes on Saturday – that’s the most we’ve played.

“There’s a lot we need to work on and we’ve actually had to have a bit of a reshuffle with our 13 heading back over the the UK, so it’s not all smooth sailing.”

It is Adam Geale who has left the Bulldogs’ ranks, leaving the outside centre role vacant.

Jack Roberson, who had been at fullback, has been moved to cover that spot, joining his brother Sam in the centres.

Scott Johnston is back from injury and will slot into flyhalf, while Brad Glasson who had done a good job steering things in his absence, shuffles to fullback.

Kick-off at Ashwood Park on Saturday is at 3.15pm.