That's the setup for the Bathurst Giants when they travel to face the Orange Tigers in this Saturday's Central West AFL men's preliminary final - a repeat the game from the same point of last year's post-season.

That game turned out to be one the most thrilling clashes across the entire year but the Giants found themselves on the wrong side of the scoreboard.

The 7-5-47 to 7-3-45 result at Waratahs will be sitting in the back of the Giants' minds but with their first taste of preliminary finals football behind them the Bathurst men know what to expect this time around.

Another similarity with the 2018 season is the Bathurst Bushrangers Rebels awaiting the winner of the Giants-Tigers game, which again creates the chance for what would be a huge all-Bathurst decider.

But there's one big difference heading into this Saturday's preliminary final: Giants are the only team yet to lose to the Tigers this year.

It could prove to be a decisive mental edge.

"Last year we made it to this stage so it's just a matter of taking that next step," Giants coach Mark Kennedy said.

"Orange is coming off a fair loss against the Rebels and I think they will be quite pumped up to get across the line. Their women are playing over there as well so they will have everyone there to cheer them on.

"The centre clearance for us this weekend is crucial because we want to try and get quick entry into our forward line. We should be focusing on getting it wide to our faster players to get that quick entry."

Giants have improved with every season of their short history and Kennedy is hopeful the trend continues when the full-time siren has sounded on this Saturday's contest.

"We're striving for that continual improvement as an organisation, which we've managed to do with every season so far," he said.

"When you look at our results from year one to now we've built quite well on the back of some younger players who have become seasoned, senior footballers.

"There's a great vibe at the moment. They want to work hard for each other and they never want to let each other down, which is half the battle."

Giants will be without Steven Yiv, Ryan Cooke and Dave Manning for this game.

On Wednesday night they were informed Jack Goodsell will also miss the preliminary final after being handed a one-match suspension for an incident in the under 17s grand final.

"We got some strategies in place and we'll be putting some additional support around the backs, and it's not like we haven't won games without key players on the paddock before," Kennedy said.

"It's just added incentive for us to try and get one more game for the people who are missing out on the weekend."

First bounce will be 2.30pm.