Asked about bad feeling between the two clubs, Winter was happy to earmark the Blues as potential top-four finishers but pulled no punches in his assessment of the rivalry.

"We certainly don't like them," Winter said.

"A couple of things have happened over the journey that we've been pretty disappointed with ... I can't go into that but there's a lot of bad blood there."

Thorp, who arrived at Launceston in late 2017 and was announced as Sam Lonergan's successor in November 2018, said his young side was just focusing on playing good footy.  

"I think there's been some history between Launceston and Lauderdale over the last few years," Thorp said.

"I've coached against Windy for a long period so I respect him, I think he's a very good coach at this level of footy so I can probably understand why that's been said.

"I'm relatively new to that so we'll just get on with the job and I'm happy for Windy to make those sort of comments."

Thorp said he would not use Winter's remarks as ammunition for his players on game day.

"I don't think they need any more firing up, they were ready to go on the weekend and they did a great job so we'll be looking forward to the contest again."

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The Blues have made two changes to the side that went down to flag fancy Glenorchy by 29 points in round one, recalling assistant coach Tim Bristow and conditioning coach Ben Killalea for Sam Bruinewood and the suspended Harvey Griffiths. 

The trip south marks Bristow's first game since returning from East Fremantle.

"He could have probably played last week but it's a long season and we want to make sure we look after our players," Thorp said.

"Ben Killalea will come back in as well - two experienced guys that have played a lot of senior footy so that will help balance out the experience and youth.

"We had five debutants last week so that just gives us a little bit better balance, but having said that we were really pleased with the efforts for long periods last week."

Lauderdale recalled wingman Rhys Sutton and young gun Mitch Anderton for Raymond Hill and Jeremiah Perkins.

Meanwhile, North Launceston has made two changes to the side that bolted to a 53-point round one win over Kingborough, with young defender Rhyan Mansell to miss the clash with Clarence after being named for his first Tasmania Devils outing.

Key forward Bart McCulloch will play his first game of the season while midfield recruit Jordan Tepper should make his Northern Bombers debut after being a late out last week.

Tom Foon is the other omission for what will be the Kangaroos' first outing in 2019.

In other teams news, joint reigning player of the year Daniel Joseph will take to the field for Glenorchy for the first time in 2019 after missing last week's clash with Launceston.

Joseph and Ryan Banks-Smith have replaced ex-Blue Giacomo Millucci, while North Hobart coach Richard Robinson swung five changes from his round one side.