Skytrans Cairns Taipans head coach Aaron Fearne couldn’t care less about the Townsville Crocodiles’ winless record from five starts this season.

The Snakes mentor is treating this Friday’s reptile rumble in Townsville as he would any other: he’s preparing his players for a full-scale, on-court battle.

“They’ve lost both their home games so far, so they’ll scrap and fight for everything,” Fearne said.

“But we have a bitter taste in our mouths from losing to Sydney on Sunday, so we’re pretty angry and upset at the moment too,” he said.

“You’re going to have two teams that are ready to go to battle on Friday; we have to be ready to fight for every possession.”

Last time the sides met in round one, Fearne ignored conjecture surrounding availability of Townsville’s Gary Ervin and Larry Abney.

Now, with the pair firmly on Australian soil, Fearne says his side must simply be consistent in implementing his strategies if it wants to avoid the title of the Crocs’ first scalp for the season.

“Not a lot will change for us this time around. Regardless of who they have out there, they’re still going to run their sets,” Fearne said.

“It all comes down to the way we set up our game plan and execute it,” he said.

Fearne said his troops would need to limit Ervin’s effectiveness, while Boomer Peter Crawford remained a scoring threat.

“Gary’s a flat-out player and we’ll have to do a fantastic job against him,” he said.

“Meanwhile ‘PC’ didn’t have a fantastic run against us last time. He’s been around a long time, has a lot of pride and will be really aggressive, so we’ll really have to lock into him,” Fearne said.

As far as reptile rumbles go, Fearne says Friday’s game would be as competitive as any other between the north Queensland rivals.

“The Crocs are a wounded beast, so we’d better be ready to go or we won’t get the job done,” Fearne said.