Victory at Engie Stadium on Saturday is critical for both teams, with Sydney's grip on second spot loosening after losses in three of their last four games.
GWS missed a golden opportunity to crack the top 10 after a shock loss to lowly Essendon last week and have dropped four of their last six matches, despite beating some of the leading sides through the season.
"I think they (Sydney derbies) are always quite intense," Cox told the media at the SCG on Friday.
"No matter where the sides are on the ladder, or the form that they do come in with, this is a very spiteful intense game of football, it always has been and we'll continue to do that tomorrow afternoon.
"Its great to take on the crosstown rivals and one thing we're preparing our group for is what they've done against the best football teams, and that's where our mind space needs to be."
He conceded Sydney hadn't always shown their renowned mental and physical toughness in the final quarter of some games.
Cox targeted contest and stoppage work as the areas he wanted most improvement on following last week's home loss to Adelaide.
"That's got to be where sides have probably taken ascendancy in periods of games through that area, so we need to make sure we're as consistent as we possibly can, through that part of the game," Cox said.
"If you look at the Giants last week they got beaten at clearances , but when they've played the best teams, Fremantle, Geelong, Brisbane, that's where their differential comes from, so we've got to make sure we're ready for that."
On-baller Angus Sheldrick was omitted from this week's team and Cox revealed there would be a different look to Sydney's midfield mix on Saturday.
"I think at times we've played a lot of midfielders in our team, so the balance of our team we need to get right, and that's also ahead of the  ball, what that looks like," Cox said.
"Ahead of the ball in our forward 50 stoppages we've been minus 23 in the last month."
He stressed GWS still had plenty of midfield and forward weaponry despite injury depriving the Giants of their talismanic captain, Toby Greene.
"Ahead of the ball and through the middle of the ground where Toby has been spending time, you're talking about (Finn) Callaghan and (Clayton) Oliver," Cox said.
"Then ahead of the ball, (Jake) Stringer had seven shots on goal last week and kicked seven against Fremantle, and then (Aaron) Cadman, so their potency is still really strong and we've got to prepare for that."
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