St Pat's to face Nyngan in battle for Western under 21s top spot

Tyson Medlyn's men are headed to Wellington in the final round of the competition, to clash with Nyngan Tigers.

Saints have won all four games they've played, but Nyngan is only two points behind them on the ladder and a loss to the Tigers could see them leapfrog St Pat's and take top spot.

Saturday's game will be played across 15 minute halves and with so little time on offer, Medlyn knows his players can't afford to slip up.

"It's one of those things, where 15 minutes isn't really that long to get into your grove and set yourselves a platform," he said.

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"If you make a mistake in those 15 minutes, it can cost you. Coming up against the good teams, you've got to be on."

A number of Medlyn's boys played in the Bathurst Panthers Knockout the previous Saturday, which resulted in another win for Panthers, at the expense of St Pat's.

He's believes that experience playing with the first grade boys will provide a boost for their development.

"Any experience they can get in the higher grades will help them," he said.

"Hopefully that can give them some confidence, having played at that higher level, and try to bring that down to the 21s."

Heading into Saturday's match against Nyngan, Medlyn said he would like to see his team control the game for longer periods of time.

"We need to make sure we control the 15 minute halves longer," he said.

"We might do 10 minutes, we might do eight minutes. We want to control the full 15 minutes.

"We also need to control the ball and make sure we aren't turning the ball over. We want to make them turn the ball over where we want to turn the ball over.

"We don't want them to dictate the game. We just need to be a bit more consistent in what we do."

Saturday's Western under 21s match between St Pat's and Nyngan will be played at Wellington and will kick-off at 2.30pm.

The match is the first of a triple header at Kennard Park, with Castlereagh and Woodbridge to follow at 3.10pm before the final match between Dubbo CYMS and Orange Orangutans kicking off at 3.50pm.

St Pat's is the only team in the competition not to drop points, while Castlereagh and Woodbridge remain winless after playing four games each.

The minor premier will progress straight through to the Western under 21s cup grand final on March 26, while second and third will battle it out for the other spot the week before on March 18 at Wellington.

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