The loss of early wickets and rain played big roles in the round one loss to the Cats, who are rated one of the biggest hurdles in the Blues' quest for back-to-back premierships.

"The Cats in round one and South Wagga now, there's no better way to try and challenge ourselves," Perry said.

"We've worked really hard in the pre season and coming up against probably the two best teams in the comp (is a big test).

"If you can scrape some points out that's awesome, but after this we'll now what we need to do to get to their level.

Perry wants his batsmen to take the game on as they look to make a statement against the competition benchmark.

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"We've got a strong batting order. Some of the other boys have to put some weight on their shoulders and take it upon themselves to try and carry us through the season," he said.

"They're all really good cricketers, but maybe we lack confidence knowing we haven't scored runs of late.

"I don't know if we put pressure on ourselves but we go into our shells and don't want to get out. Instead of trying not to get out we should be trying to score runs.

"We were outstanding with the ball I thought, it's something we can build on."

Opening bowler Ben Willis and Charlie Cull come back into the Bulldogs line-up after missing round one, with Hayden Cooke and Blake Brynes dropping out.

The Blues will field the same side that defeated Kooringal in round one.

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