Last year the Saints recruited well in the pre-season and under coach Zac Merritt, were fit and ready for a tilt at Group 10's premier league crown.

But COVID-19 led to the cancellation of senior Group 10 competitions.

Now Merritt has once again got a strong and fit squad who are eager to fire in the blue and white and they will get their chance on Saturday against Bathurst Panthers. They will play for a trophy both clubs covet.

"Actually we did ask for this and to be fair, the draw is very good this year. Round one against Panthers on ANZAC Day at Pat's is really good," Goldsmith said.

"We've had this tradition going now since 2015, we swap around each year. Next year it will be at their place, but it's at our house this year.

"All our coaches have been working really hard, our committee has been sterling in the off-season and everyone is really keen to see a game of football on Saturday - busting."

St Pat's won the inaugural ANZAC memorial game against Panthers 32-6, but since then the men in black have taken out the annual fixture.

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Goldsmith knows beating Panthers, who are also the two-times Group 10 defending champions, will not be easy. But just as he has the utmost respect for his local rivals, he'd love to beat them too.

"It hasn't been in our trophy case for the while, we've only won it the once, so we'd love to win it this year. It's always a cracking game of football," he said.

"The Panthers boys have been the benchmark, they really have, and it shows in the great culture that club has built. They have a lot of young blokes, a few selected imports and they all seem to pull in the same direction.

"It's a real credit to blokes like Wayne Boyd, Danny Dwyer and Dougie Hewitt and co, they lift that club up and they are the benchmark for Group 10."

Goldsmith offered his thanks to the Bathurst RSL Sub Branch for helping with the ANZAC memorial aspects of the day.

The action at Jack Arrow Oval gets underway at 12.40pm on Saturday with the under 18s. Following that will be the under 18 league tag game (2.10pm), first division (3.15pm) and senior league tag (4.45pm), with premier league to kick-off at 6.30pm.

An under 7s match between the two clubs will be played during the premier league half-time break.

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