The Saints had byes the past two weekends and face Old Scotch in the final round on Saturday at John Cunningham Oval.

"I'm not too worried about that at this time of year, especially with the amount of injuries we had through the year," Russell said.

"It was nice to know we had a bit of a window there just to get blokes right that needed the time off. So it's probably worked out quite well."

How have St Pats handled having essentially three weeks without matches?

"We've probably just upped our session load over the last couple of weeks and picked up an extra one on a Saturday just to try and keep some routine as best we can," Russell said.

"But all has gone quite well and it's given us a good chance to get that list all healthy."

READ MORE: Swans hitting form at right end of NTFA division one season

He added it would be the first time since about round one that he and co-mentor Jake Lowe had almost a full list of blokes available.

Jacob Gelston, Ryan Choveaux (knee) and Russell (knee) are among the injured players at the moment.

Saturday's game will be hotly-contested given both teams want a solid hit-out before finals.

Russell was also pleased the Saints got to play fifth-ranked Old Launcestonians recently.

The Thistles are the only team to have beaten the Saints this year. They got up by 14 points in round nine.

Russell gave credit to Old Scotch for the way they battled that day.

"They just matched up really well with us across the ground and didn't allow us to play the way we wanted to," he said. "They controlled the footy really well when they went forward and made it hard for us to get our hands on the footy."

Old Scotch mentor Brayley Coombes spoke of the importance of the clash to his group.

"You just respect it for what it is, they're on top of the ladder and deserve to be on top of the ladder, they're a really strong side," he said.

"We did manage to beat them earlier in the year but we're not getting ahead of ourselves because of that.

"It's going to be a massive challenge, especially on their home deck and it's going to be a really good insight into what's required for finals.

"It's really finals starting a week earlier. Win, lose or draw we've just got make sure we learn from whatever the outcome is."

Coombes said pride in skill execution, particularly goal-kicking and field-kicking, would be focal points for the Thistles based on their recent game against UTAS.

Meanwhile, Lilydale welcomes Old Launcestonians, Evandale hosts Meander Valley and East Coast ventures to Perth.

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