ST Pat’s can seal the men’s Premier League Hockey minor premiership this Saturday with a win over Souths, but that will not be a major motivator for the blue and whites.
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For the Saints the simple fact they will be playing their Bathurst rival is enough to have them hungry to succeed.
“Local derbies are always pretty tough and physical and pretty big, important games. You always want bragging rights and especially coming into finals, it’s important for us to keep that momentum going,” Pat’s coach Shane Conroy said.
“But it’s another local derby and that’s enough to make it important to me. If one team was running last and the other first, it doesn’t matter, we both lift for the occasion.”
With both the Saints and Souths currently in the top three, there is every chance Saturday’s contest is a preview to a finals meeting between the pair.
But Conroy does not want to think that far ahead.
He will implore his players to focus on the 70 minutes at hand – an approach they have used for each game this season and one which saw them beat Souths 2-1 in June.
“It would be nice to get that edge over them before the finals, but it’s not something we are going to focus on. We will just do the same as we have been doing every week, just focus on ourselves and on the game,” he said.
Saturday’s match at Bob Roach Field starts at 2.30pm.
