But Assistant Coach Paul Nicholls, who has been running the cutter during Brown's absence, says nothing can shift their eyes off the big prize.
"Certainly focus is what we've been talking about all week - we want the players to remain focussed on the task at hand," Nicholls said.
"It's a big day for Canterbury football and everyone is getting rung up about this or that and everything else but we're just trying to keep the lads channelled and focused on the big match itself and nothing else."
Having secured the Mainland Premier League title, claimed and defended the Hurley Shield and beaten Dunedin Technical last weekend to claim South Island honours, Cashmere have built plenty of big game experience over the business end of this season, but Nicholls admits the ASB Chatham Cup has never been too far away from their thoughts.
"The players have done really well in keeping themselves composed through what John would call, a lot of Cup finals in the past few weeks.
"The hard thing over the past few weeks with the semi final and now the final coming up has been trying to focus the lads on the other games. It was difficult and our performances since the semi final were not as high as they have been previously, but that's part of football. The more successful you get the harder it is at the end of the season.
"We're really proud to have won the South Island championship, proud to have won the league and proud to retain the Hurley Shield but there is no other distraction now and we're really focused."
Meanwhile, Colin Tuaa has been managing potential disruptions to his Waitakere City side's preparations, notably the absence of two star players until today.
Midfield general Jake Butler won his first All Whites cap in the recent win over Saudi Arabia, and since their semi final win over Melville, feared striker Roy Krishna has spent the time in Fiji where he was recently unveiled as Auckland City's major signing for the upcoming ASB Premiership season.
"To be honest, it hasn't been to difficult to maintain focus," counters Tuaa, "we've just had to get on with the job of preparing for the final."
That said, Tuaa acknowledge the benefit of having two more of his big guns back - alongside fringe All White Tim Myers - to help steady the ship as amidst the pressure cup final week.
"Players react differently in big games, but we're quite fortunate to have three or four players who have won titles with Waitakere United and that's going to have benefits in a lot of ways.
"Not only in the game when they can be a calming influence when we need it but also in the preparation when nerves do play a big part.
Tuaa has a great deal of respect for Cashmere's exploits this season in various competitions but is 'quietly confident' of ending their winning run in front of a partisan home crowd.
"For us it's about taking the emotion out of these big games and our approach has been to make it as normal as possible.
"We're going to have to concentrate really well at the start. When we have a full side out we've been working well out of possession and we're going to have to do that from the start.
"If we can do that and then get that opening goal then that will calm the nerves and perhaps silence the crowd a bit, and we can maybe kick on from there."
The ASB Chatham Cup final kicks off at 2.30pm as the second half of a cup final double header, with Auckland's Glenfield Rovers meeting Christchurch's Coastal Spirit in the final of the ASB Women's Knockout Cup at 11am.
-APNZ
