A week off after a relentless 13 rounds of NPL football and the Monaro Panthers are feeling refreshed and ready to kick things back off this weekend.

After last weekend’s clash against second placed Tigers FC was postponed due to the wet weather, head coach Frank Cachia said it allowed players the opportunity to get over some niggling injuries in time for the business end of the season.

“I think it was well overdue,” Cachia said.

“We hadn’t had a week off since the start of the season and playing all the way through the FFA Cup as well, it was pretty relentless for us.

“It’s allowed some of the boys to get over some injuries, we haven’t got over all of them just yet but I think it was a pretty welcome reprieve for the boys.”

While Adam Neou is out for a couple more weeks with a broken hand and Jeremy Habtemariam still nursing his hamstring, the Panthers will otherwise be close to full compliment for Saturday’s 7.55pm kick off against Canberra Olympic.

Handy, when it’s still anyone’s game on the run to finals.

“It’s an exciting competition and pretty much everyone is still in it, from anywhere from second down to eight it’s a real open competition,” Cachia said.

“Any game is an important game to us and we started off the season so slowly so it’s been must win ever since then. The fact that we’ve only lost once since Round 5 is showing that we’re very much improving and we’ve got a lot to play for.”

Cachia confident his side is up for the challenge, up against his former club.

“Spending so many years at the club, I have a lot of friends there and even when Olympic beat Canberra Croatia a couple weeks back, I was probably one of the first ones to text Robbie [Cattanach] and wish him congratulations and tell him what a great achievement it was. We have a good relationship between Robbie and myself and a number of the guys there.

“We’ve been a club that hasn’t had much success over the last two decades, and Olympic are potentially looking at not making the top four for two years in a row after winning the premiership three years out of four so there’s big pressure on both clubs for different reasons.”

The game has moved to Hawker Football Centre, with kick off is 7.55pm on Saturday.