Northern Hawks and Cavaliers will meet for the first time this season at the Silverdome on Saturday, signalling the start of a rivalry as competitive as it is good-natured.

Premiership player Danni Pickett, whose Hawks won all three Northern derbies last season, spoke of the two sides' mutual respect ahead of the top-of-the-table clash.

"It's always a really big build-up which is exciting," Pickett said.

"I think most of the girls are quite good friends off the court, but when we step over the white line and we're on the court everyone's got pretty massive white-line fever so for that 60 minutes everyone's pretty competitive.

"It's good that we can do that and go off the court and potentially catch up later."

RELATED: Pickett chuffed with 100-game milestone

Dan Roden's Cavaliers remain the State League's only unbeaten side following two consecutive one-goal wins, while the Hawks are smarting from a 72-55 loss to Arrows.

Pickett said her side was keen to return to its good form of the opening rounds.

"I think we put a lot of unnecessary pressure on ourselves to try and be that best team in the competition and obviously once you've won the premiership you want to stay on top," Pickett said.

"It was disappointing for us but I think we'll look back on the season and it'll be a real turning point for us and I think we'll bounce back this weekend."

Adding an extra spark to the derby will be the presence of Hawks sisters Lydia and Tessa Coote - both ex-Cavaliers.

Cavs goal attack Deanna Wadley said she was looking forward to lining up against her old teammates.

"I think it's great that Hawks have given them the opportunity to play together again because they haven't played together for quite a while," Wadley said.

"It sucks they won't be in a Cavs dress on the weekend, but we're really happy for them and a lot of the girls are still really close to the Cootes."

The round six clash begins at 6.40pm.

Love local sport? Like our sports Facebook page here.