St Pat’s have worked tirelessly to get the new Jack Arrow Sporting Complex up and running and this Sunday the club get the chance to play their first Group 10 premier league fixture at the ground.
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After years of planning and development – plus two away games to start the season – the wait will finally come to a close when Pat’s take on the Oberon Tigers.
The Saints have made a perfect start to the season with dominant wins over the Lithgow Workies and Blayney Bears.
The Bathurst club has the chance to make it a hat-trick and christen their new ground with a win over last year’s grand finalists.
It will be an exciting weekend of football action at the venue with the Western Rams representative cluster being held over both days.
The Saints-Tigers meeting will be an highly anticipated finale to the busy schedule.
“It’s going to be unreal. After all the work that the volunteers, council workers and the public in general have put in the ground we’re really looking forward to kick-off,” Pat’s captain-coach Greg Behan said.
“We waited so long first of all to train on it and now we get to play on it. There’s a bit more excitement about the place.
“This weekend will be a great way to showcase the fields and facilities that people have put a lot of work into.”
Pat’s have landed a tough opponent for their opening game at Jack Arrow Park.
Tigers went down heavily to the Cowra Magpies in the opening round but were back to their best in a big win over Workies last weekend.
Oberon’s team boasts Group 10 representative centre pairing Abel Lefaoseu and Jackson Brien as well as front row destroyer Josh Starling.
There’s also the chance Tigers’ injured captain-coach Luke Branighan will make his return at the Bathurst match.
“Oberon have got an unreal pack and have made some great signings. We’re expecting a very physical game,” Behan said.
“Everyone’s still finding their feet in the competition … [but] we know with or without Branighan there they’re going to be very good.
“We’re most focused on ourselves on what we have to do as a team. Everyone knows what we’ve got to do and when you come up against a quality team like Oberon you’ve got to be switched on.
“We based a lot of our preseason around our defence and it’s starting to show with some low scores against us. Obviously we’ll be tested again on the weekend so hopefully our attack starts coming on.”
Pat’s and Tigers’ matches start from 10.10am on Sunday.
