Gunnedah are a "100 per cent" better side to the one that Narrabri ambushed in the second half earlier this year, says Red Devils manager Stan Gaynor.
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Gunnedah led Narrabri 19-5 at halftime at home in round two, the Red Devils' first match of the season, before the Blue Boars won 32-24.
Saturday's clash in Narrabri will be their first encounter since that match, and both outfits have emerged as finals contenders.
Gunnedah sit in third spot with five wins from eights games, while six-placed Narrabri have six wins from nines games.
In their first meeting, Gaynor said Gunnedah "got ahead of ourselves and didn't finish the job".
"But since then we've shown that we've improved and we finish the job against the bigger sides ... Moree, Pirates, and we've ground out wins against some other sides as well.
"We're a 100 per cent better side since that first game. But we know Narrabri have also got much better as the season's gone, as they showed by beating Walcha up there last week."
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Gaynor said there was a "positive" atmosphere at the club and expectations were high.
However, he said the side was "by no means the finished product yet".
That was illustrated, he said, by their 46-17 loss to Walcha in round seven.
"We're sitting in finals spots in both grades and we're getting very good numbers at training ... we're enjoying having strong numbers and enjoying some big wins," he said.
"We're not where we want to be yet," he added, "because we've had some close calls, some losses that we didn't need to have."
Coming off a bye, Gaynor said Red Devils would be close to full strength against the Blue Boars. The side was "looking pretty strong".
In other matches on Saturday, Inverell hosts Walcha, Tamworth hosts Moree and Quirindi travels to Barrabra.
