The teams have been named for the Central West Premier League Hockey men's and women's all-star games against Briars at the Cooke Hockey Complex this Saturday.

The new concept brings together the region's best players in one side to take on the Concord-based club in a challenging pre-season hit out at Bathurst.

St Pat's women's coach and NSW Country mentor Jaden Ekert will be calling the shots as the men's coach while Lithgow Panthers women's title-winning mentor David Marshall will coach the women's side.

"It's a hard changeover time of year with cricket finals on but we've managed to get a handy team together," Ekert said.

"It's an unreal team. Some of those guys have played NSW Country and some of them have played at a rather high state level. It's an awesome concept that they're trying to set up and I'm all for it.

"If we can promote hockey in the Central West in a bigger way then why not go for it?"

Ekert said his side it's a thrill to coach a team stacked with such an abundance of talent.

"You've got blokes there like Brandon Horner who has played AHL and has been thereabouts in those top teams. There's the likes of Bailey Ferguson, who has played in NSW Country," he said.

"Taylor Dobel is a class player and Ben Kelly, who's probably one of our most experienced and fittest guys, is going to be leading the team.

"Our women's team also looks really, really good. They told us to pick the best of the best and that's what we've done. Both games are going to be high quality."

The all-star game headlines a huge weekend of hockey action.

Hockey NSW will be hosting a participation day at Cooke Hockey Complex this Friday before the all-star games take place the next day.

The action continues on Sunday when a Premier League Hockey gala day will welcome several teams to the city for more pre-season action.

Dan Wilson, Shane Conroy, Tamika Potter, Esther Hotham, Andrea Gillard, Kelly Baker and Parkes and sometimes-Confederates star India Draper were all originally selected in the teams but unable to play for various reasons.

The women's All Star match gets underway at Cooke Hockey Complex from 2.30pm while the blockbuster men's clash will follow at 4.30pm.

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