In a match which also doubled as the Group 10 premier league season opener for both sides, Panthers' period of brilliance just before half-time set up a 26-6 win under lights at Jack Arrow Oval.

It was Panthers' biggest winning margin in their run of success in the annual memorial fixture and means they keep hold of the trophy they first won in 2016.

"The longer we can keep it off them the better," Panthers captain-coach Doug Hewitt said.

"It's a trophy that means so much to a lot of people, it's always a good game, it's played in the right spirit and tonight is another night it's come home with us."

Panthers had to endure a tough start to the contest as firstly prop Dave Sellers was knocked out on the opening play of the game, then winger Desi Doolan was sinbinned following a scuffle in the 10th minute.

Panthers then had what they thought would be the opening try come to nought when a cut out pass from Willie Wright which put Jeremy Gordon into space was called back.

But Panthers' fortunes changed as the half ticked on.

They changed in dramatic fashion too with four tries in the space of nine minutes.

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"First play of the game, that was hard losing a player like Dave. It wasn't the ideal start, but that's what local derbies are all about, you never know what you are going to get and it's always the toughest footy," Hewitt said.

"Once we found our groove, it just came back to playing our our sets and sticking to our structure which we had worked on."

The first of those four tries came via winger Malik Blenman after Pat's had piggybacked them down field with a penalty.

Another new recruit, Abel Lefaoseu, had the second soon after as he hit a Hewitt pass at speed and crashed over.

The following set there was more pain for Pat's as Panthers charged down field on the back of their forwards and Hewitt put up a bomb.

It bounced away from the Saints defenders into the arms of fullback Josh Rivett, who dived over and made it 14-0.

The Saints put the kick-off which followed out on the full, Panthers attacked once more and Doolan went over in the left corner.

Wright nailed the sideline conversion, giving Panthers a 20-0 lead at the break.

During the half-time break Saints captain-coach Zac Merritt, who copped a rib cartilage injury in the opening 20 minutes and had to watch the blitz from the sideline, called on his men to lift.

It was a call they listened to as they came out from the break with renewed vigour.

After six minutes they forced a line drop-out and from the resulting set fullback Lee McClintock sliced open Panthers' defence. Tyler Colley converted and it gave Pat's some hope at 20-6.

However, Panthers were not long in finding a reply.

Attacking on Pat's line, Hewitt put in a cross-field kick, and leaping high Blenman was able to knock the ball back in field to centre Keelan Bresac. He scored and Wright nailed another wide conversion to make it 26-6.

While neither side was able to add to their tally after that, the passion and physicality in the contest remained.

Even up until the final minutes, when both Mitch Browne and Blenman were sin-binned after another scuffle, the Bathurst rivals put in the sort of effort that has become a trademark of the ANZAC memorial fixtures.

"It was exactly what I spoke about at the start of the week, it was that 20 minutes at the start of the game, it's always an arm-wrestle," Hewitt said.

"It was tough footy, it was back and forward, everyone was gassed on a pretty fresh night, but as soon as we found that front foot there was just no stopping us from there.

"We spoke about how we had to get over that arm wrestle and once the ball came our way we were just too good.

"We thought they were looking for a breather at half-time to come back at us, and they did. I think we went away from our sets a little bit and played a bit complacent, so that's something we'll work on. But I can't be disappointed, we had a lead and we defended it and we defended it really well."

While all but one of Panthers' tries came from their back line, their forwards played a big role in giving them momentum. Blake and Brent Seager as well as Jake and Jedd Betts all hit the line hard

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