By Brayden Lindsay

The Walsh family will have feet in both camps for this weekend's Hamersley Cup semifinal at Alpine Energy Stadium.

Nigel and Kelly Walsh, who both played in senior finals without winning any, will be on opposite sides of the ledger this weekend.

Nigel is at the helm of the superb Celtic side that have defeated everyone to date this season, while Kelly is in charge of a Pleasant Point side that claimed second place with a strong win over Geraldine last weekend, aided by Temuka losing to Waimate.

Celtic look set to add an eighth successive Hamersley Cup crown to their trophy cabinet, which would be a fifth straight title for Nigel, although Kelly and Pleasant Point and Temuka and Waimate will have other ideas on that.

"It starts fresh this weekend. The round robin is done and dusted and now it back to even playing fields it is one game at a time," Nigel said.

He said the chance to coach against his brother this weekend was exciting.

"It is something I'm looking forward to but like we have both said it's about the teams in action and not us."

Nigel has claimed the previous two encounters between the sides, 33-13 and 31-17 in what were entertaining fixtures.

"Kelly has done a really good job with Pleasant Point and it's great to see him coaching."

Ad Feedback

The pair said family rivalry would be split this weekend.

"Our sister might be on Kelly's side because she lives in Pleasant Point and our brother might support me because he works for me," Nigel said.

Their mother was going to travel down from Twizel for the fixture.

Kelly and Nigel said their dad, who passed away about a decade ago would be incredibly proud of them.

Nigel said Celtic had set themselves goals to knock off during the season, and to achieve them was nice.

"We wanted to be top after the first round and then make the semifinals, which we managed early in the second round.

"The guys were also able to achieve a few personal goals which was good."

Banter between the pair has been minimal with both not trying to lose concentration of the task ahead.

Younger brother Kelly was excited with the opportunity ahead.

"It will be tough but to be the best you need to beat the best and we're excited about that, it's something we're certainly looking forward to," Kelly said.

He has loved his first year of coaching a premier side.

"It's been a lot of fun. There's a lot more work to do but I'm enjoying it."

Having older brother Nigel as a coach had helped, Kelly said.

"Over the last couple of years he has been really good giving me bits of advice."

Kelly made the step up to the senior side following four years with the Pleasant Point B side.

"It came a bit quicker than I anticipated but it's giving me a good challenge."

He said the side is taking it week by week.

"We've been treating every game as a final including last weekend's encounter with Geraldine and we will continue to do that."

The pair owe a lot to their fellow coaching staff, Peni Latu, Shaun Breen and Chris Gard have helped Nigel at Celtic, while Kelly has appreciated the help received from John Simpson and Alan Scott.

Both would love to coach together if that "path came about", but they were looking forward to hopefully having many more battles in finals to come.