Wairarapa United could almost claim home ground advantage for their Chatham Cup grand final football match with Napier City Rovers at Memorial Park, Palmerston North, on Sunday.
No fewer than eight of the likely starting line-up have regularly played in Manawatu at either representative or club level - or both - in recent seasons, with the only exceptions being Fijian duo Pita Rabo and Waisake Sabatu along with Carl Shailer.
"I guess you could say it's a home game away from home for most of the boys," Wairarapa United coach Phil Keinzley said yesterday.
"At least we don't need to worry about not finding the grounds!"
Keinzley is hoping the strong affiliations his team has with Manawatu will convert into the locals supporting Wairarapa United, along with the many hundreds sure to travel to Palmerston North from Wairarapa for the 2pm kickoff.
"Honestly, you'd think from all the messages of support we have had that every man, woman and dog from here will be there ... it's been pretty humbling to find so many people keen to see us do well."
Keinzley has deliberately kept the build-up to the cup final for his players low key, with Tuesday night's training session focusing on fine tuning the defensive strategies and tonight's involving a brief chat with former All Black coach and captain Sir Brian Lochore.
Keinzley said he had enlisted the assistance of Sir Brian simply to help the players understand how to best handle the media hype surrounding Sunday's match, along with the nervous tension associated with playing on such a big stage.
"Sir Brian has been there, done that on many occasions and I am sure we will all benefit from his thoughts," Keinzley said.
"It's great that he has made himself available because he's a very busy man."
Keinzley won't finalise his starting line-up until after tonight's training run but the only real question mark is over which of James Oxtoby and Adam Milne will play at fullback.
Oxtoby's greater experience may give him the inside running but Milne starred in the cup semifinal win over Bay Olympic and again against Miramar Rangers last weekend, and the value of his height and aggression cannot be easily discounted.
Otherwise Wairarapa United will have Matt Borren in goal, Scott Robson, Nathan Cooksley and Waisake Sabatu in defensive roles, Dale Higham, Pita Rabo, Nobuyishi Ishi and Carl Shailer in midfield, and Seule Soromon and Adam Cowan up front.
And there will be considerable strength on the bench with Campbell Banks, Miroslav Tvaroh, Pablo Moya and reserve goalkeeper James Mann joining either of Oxtoby or Milne.
Having so many quality players as subs is seen by coach Keinzley as a potential game breaker, as with the two teams so evenly matched on paper there is the very real prospect of it going into extra time of 15 minutes each way.
"The impact from the bench can be so important in games like this and we're lucky to have a number of players who are capable of adding something positive to the team effort when they come on."
Should the two sides be level pegging at the end of extra time, a penalty shootout will decide the cup winner and Keinzley says his players have been practising their skills in that department.
Should any penalties be awarded Wairarapa United within the first 90 minutes, it will be skipper Adam Cowan who is first cab off the rank, a change from last weekend when Campbell Banks took - and missed - a vital penalty against Miramar Rangers.
Keinzley said Cowan had not missed from the penalty spot this season and he was surprised when he didn't take the responsibility last Sunday.
"It's not something everyone enjoys but Adam does it well, he's definitely our man this time around."
As befits a Chatham Cup final the top-ranked referee in the country, Peter O'Leary, will have the whistle and Times-Age inquiries suggest that he is a stickler for discipline who will come down hard on any players who react vocally to rulings with which they disagree.
Keinzley said the message to the Wairarapa United squad would simply be to take the referee out of the game by keeping their mouths shut.