Saints halves fully fit for round one of Peter McDonald Premiership

There were injury concerns hanging over the new St Pat's combination of Noah Griffiths and Willie Wright ahead of this Saturday's opening game of the Peter McDonald Premiership but the pair are confirmed fit and raring to go.

The Saints will welcome the Nyngan Tigers to Bathurst this week with the former Panthers duo ready to lead the blue and white's offence.

Griffiths and Wright were two of the major signings for Pat's over the off-season, as it gives the side an already established combination a chance to direct their attack for 2023.

Saints player-coach Zak Merritt said every precaution was taken to ensure the pair would be in top shape for the opener at Jack Arrow Sporting Complex.

"They're both good and training really well at the moment," he said.

"Noah had a shoulder niggle from the knockout but we've taken precautions with him throughout the pre-season and he didn't trial against Forbes. He's looking great now.

"Willie's also good. He had an achilles strain so we didn't push him in the trials to make sure that he's ready for round one.

"We'll pretty much have a full strength team for round one now. Luke Single will be away, because his sister is getting married up at Newcastle, so Cooper Ackroyd comes into lock for him.

"That's great to see because you want to be at or close to full strength in round one so you can put your best foot forward and try to stamp your authority."

The Saints are chasing another appearance in the Peter McDonald Premiership final series after they ended a six year wait to reach that stage last season.

With the off season signings that they've made, led by Griffiths and Wright, they're shaping up as one of the teams to watch in the Group 10 conference.

Merritt said the team has prepared as well as they can for Nyngan but they don't want to focus too hard on the opposition.

"You often turn up blind in the opening round. We've done our homework on who Nyngan have signed, and we'll have to be on with our defence," he said.

"We want to set a standard for ourselves and not look too far ahead. We just need to focus on the game in front of us, and this one should be a good battle.

"I feel defence-wise we need to be more sound than what we were in our trial games. In the final of the knockout we leaked too many points. I know we had a few out but there was no excuse for leaking that many points.

"Defence has been a big focus for us in the lead up to this so hopefully we can turn it around."

Reading this on mobile web? Download our news app. It's faster, easier to read and we'll send you alerts for breaking news as it happens. Download in the Apple Store or Google Play.