MEETING the defending champions in a season opener is never an easy task, but St Pat’s men’s Premier League Hockey side is ready for that challenge this Saturday.
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The Saints meet Lithgow Panthers in Parkes as part of a competition gala round and will do so with a similar looking squad to last season.
Josh Toole and Brodie Cook are the main departures, having retired, but the Saints have plenty of emerging talents to fill the gaps.
“We’ve got a few changes this year, but nothing out of the ordinary. We’re lucky that we’ve got a good, strong club and people to take over,” manager Peter Davis said.
“I’d say we’ve retained about 70 per cent of our players, we’ve lost a few to work duties and we’ve got a lot of juniors coming through who are ready to hit the ground running, especially young Lachie Howard.
“He’s just come back from state with the under 15s, so he’s ready to go. We’ve also got Tyler Willott and he’s been going great.”
While Pat’s deferred its round one match against Bathurst City, Panthers beat Orange Wanderers 7-0 on the opening day of competition.
Just how strong a squad Panthers will bring to Parkes remains to be seen, but Davis says the Saints are concentrating on themselves.
“We’ve just got to make sure we keep turning them around, anyone is beatable on the day,” he said.
“You never know who is going to turn up for Panthers when we play them in Parkes.
“[But] I don’t really care what anyone else is doing, we are just going to focus on ourselves.”
Saturday’s match gets underway at 2pm in Parkes.
