WITH a third consecutive Group 10 league tag premiership beckoning this Sunday St Pat's coach Mick Armstrong freely admits there is pressure on his playing group, but it's pressure he knows they can handle.
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They've proven it time and time again.
Last season as defending premiers his Saints went through the competition undefeated. In 2019, while the target on their backs has been even bigger, the Bathurst side has won every match they have played.
Now just Orange Hawks - the team the Saints beat in both the 2017 and 2018 grand final - stand in the way of another success story. They will clash in Sunday's decider at Carrington Park.
"I think the pressure is on anyone that's playing in a grand final, obviously we'll go in as favourites and there's pressure which comes with that, but I think the girls are handling it quite well," Armstrong said.
"A number of them have been in grand finals already, so they understand what they have to do to get the job done. A lot of the girls who have come in this year have come from competitions where they've played grand finals as well.
"Whenever you win the comp, the following year everyone wants to beat you even more so, so there's always that pressure. We're used to it now, we've got a number of girls who have played in big games before and pressure situations."
While Armstrong has the utmost faith in his playing squad, he also has plenty of respect for Hawks.
Like the Saints, the Orange outfit has both Group 10 and Western Division representatives in their line up.
Hawks got within two points of the Saints in round 17 and while Armstrong's side won the major semi-final 30-10, the coach is anticipating a much tighter contest in the decider.
It means he will stress to his players the basics of ball control and good completion rates.
"They've got a good coach who does a really good job with them and although they've had a fair bit of personnel changes, they always seem to produce quality players," he said.
"It's always been a tough game against them every time we've come up against them in the last three years. We know they'll give us a good test.
Obviously we'll go in as favourites and there's pressure which comes with that, but I think the girls are handling it quite well.
- Mick Armstrong
"We definitely need to make sure we put everything together and put in a good performance.
"It's the same as any other game ... we've got to make sure that when we've got the ball we hold onto it and we limit their opportunities. If we can do that, I think we'll go a long way to winning.
"It's a cliche, but we need to complete our sets, make sure they are playing out of their end the whole game and that we're not giving them an opportunity to score.
"We've got a lot of strike power on across the field and having Erin there at the back is good because she's so quick and can score from anywhere. We've also got a lot of people who have played for a long time and understand the simple things win you games."
Sunday's grand final kicks off at 10.25am.
