The Rabbitohs will be hungry for a win after last week's 30-point thrashing in Forbes, and Dunn said his troops are looking forward to a more competitive match-up at No.1 Oval on Sunday.

"Local derbies are always a hard game," Dunn said.

"Forbes beat us last week by 30 points but they're not 30 points better than us. The score didn't reflect the game. We just didn't engage.

"It'll be a good game. I think it was one all last year so it's pretty even. We're sort of the underdogs...we're sort of behind them so it'll be a bonus if we beat them as the underdogs."

While Westside boasts a speedy line up in the backs, Dunn said it will take a whole of team effort to get up over Macquarie.

"I think it will be good all round, in the forwards and the backs," he said.

"I think we'll beat them as a team."

The side has lost a number of players since last year, including Josh Merritt who crossed over to the blue side of town during the off season.

Dunn said forming connections among new and old players, will be key to improving the side's performance over the coming weeks.

He said the squad has high hopes for 2016.

"The combos I'll be looking for this week is to get some combos going with the new players...old players, building up the combinations and the connections," he said.

"To be quite honest the difference between this year and last year is probably our fitness. We're a lot fitter now. The first year they came into the competition they came last and I took over last year and it wasn't a two year plan or anything but we were one game off a grand final and this year we'd like to go one further."