Group 10: Bathurst Panthers seek derby revenge against St Pat's in magic round

Panthers have gone through an agonising four week wait to get any match time, thanks to a mixture of byes and cancellations, although in the time away it's given their second row threat Abel Lefaoseu the chance to recover from injury.

Team manager Danny Dwyer said it's a relief to finally have a game arrive.

"It's been a very tough year. The makeup of the competition has made it hard to get any consistency, and we've had a lot of injuries this year on the back of the boys not playing week-to-week," he said.

"On the other hand we've had a chance to recover over that time. Abel is back this week, and he's missed a few games. Jeremy Gordon is still probably a week away and Blake Seager is going through a hamstring problem.

"It will be great to have Josh Rivett back as well, because he's missed a few games. It's nice to get a few back, and hopefully we'll just about have everyone here in a week's time."

Panthers, for once, will be the one's chasing revenge in the Bathurst derby.

Their long streak of success in the all-Bathurst clash came to an end in the latest game when Saints came away 16-14 winners at Carrington Park.

They meet at the same venue this weekend, where Dwyer hopes a bolstered Panthers team can flip that result.

"Pat's seem to be in that rebuilding phase where they've got some young guys coming through the system who can help them," he said.

"The win for them last time we played them probably wasn't too much of a surprise. We had a fair few of our players out but they kept it fairly close in the end.

"We'll be trying to get one back here and then use that to try to get things looking good towards the end of the season."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: