Helensburgh captain Steve McCallum says the Tigers are intent on turning Rex Jackson Oval into a fortress in a bid to add a hard-nosed edge to their Illawarra Coal League campaign.

While he feels right at home, McCallum said his side is aware that their Coal League rivals don't enjoy the trip up the mountain.

The Tigers won all but their final game at home last year, however, a long-awaited premiership still eludes them.

McCallum said they'll be looking to go one better this year and remain without a loss at home starting with their match against Collegians on Saturday.

"We love playing at home and we love that no one likes coming here," McCallum said.

"We had the Challenge Cup game at home and had a pretty good crowd there and we normally pull a pretty good crowd when we play Collies so hopefully we get a good crowd up there.

"We'll take any advantage we can get out of our home ground and if other teams don't like playing there than that's good for us."

If the trip north wasn't already daunting enough for the Dogs, the 'Burgh will enter the round two clash following a convincing 34-8 away win over Thirroul last week and will return to the venue where they posted 78 points against Aquinas in the preseason Challenge Cup just three weeks ago.

While their early season form has been attributed to having a virtually unchanged roster, McCallum said the club has been boosted by it's growing depth.

"It probably is an advantage we have over other teams that we've kept mostly the same roster but in saying that we have changed a few things and we're playing a bit differently this year," McCallum said.

"The biggest thing at the moment is there's such strong competition for spots. We won all three grades on the weekend and we're really strong throughout the club.

"There's upwards of 25 guys pushing to play first grade so everyone's working hard at the moment to hold their spot.Collies are coming off a 44-0 drubbing at the hands of Wests but McCallum said the Tigers won't be reading much into that result.

"They've retained quite a few of their old squad from last year and we're not going to take them lightly that's for sure," he said.

"They're a strong club and we've had some pretty good battles with them over the last few years so we expect them to be tough."

Also on Saturday, Thirroul host Corrimal while Dapto meet arch rivals Wests at Dapto Showground.