WHEN St Pat’s Group 10 premier league coach Kurt Hancock put his foot down at training this season and demanded more, his team responded in a manner which reminded him of his 2014 premiership-winning outfit.

After an inconsistent start to the year, the Saints have rallied to sit second on the ladder. 

Minus a core leadership group which helped steer his team off the field two years ago when they took out the competition, Hancock has had to take on those responsibilities himself in 2016.

The result? Outstanding football.

The belief Pat’s have found was evident during their wins in the past fortnight over the then-undefeated Oberon Tigers and defending champions Orange CYMS.

Hancock saw a need to change his side’s training habits after a 32-22 round six loss to the Blayney Bears.

At the time Pat’s still boasted four wins from six games, but some of those victories had been rather unconvincing.

“Up until that Blayney game, we’d been up and down in our training during the week. It had been like that throughout the whole club. I had a chat to [first division coach] Daniel Finn and [under 18s coach] Brady Cheshire after that weekend talking about how we really need to up the ante and find our teams’ limit,” Hancock said.

“First grade has now blossomed into a strong side. All that hard work they’ve been doing has come together. We’ve got a few strong results together and we could easily have been sixth or seventh if it weren’t for those wins against Oberon and CYMS.

“I think they’ve worked as hard mentally as they have physically at training. Over the next two weeks we’ve got to go to another level. We’ve got Workies and Cowra and they’re two games that we should be winning.”

Hancock said the current level of effort from his side at training reminds him of the team that got the club its sixth Group 10 title, even if the manner in which it has been drawn out has been different.

“This year I’ve had the police at training – I’ve been playing good cop, bad cop. In that 2014 side we had guys like Brent Dennis, Cam Neville, Luke Single and Dane Fisher, experienced guys who kept things under control, but those sort of guys I don‘t have this year,” he said.

“I’m so happy with the way they’ve responded to that. I tend to play less bad cop and let them do their own thing on game day. You have to take the time to adapt to the playing group you’ve got.

“They’ve wanted their feedback individually rather than as a team and they’ve responded to that too. The belief in the team is the same as when we won the comp, they just need to be pushed along that little bit more.”

All over the park Pat’s have seen players step up to help deliver an improvement.

Cheshire, Nick Millar and Jack Mackey have stood out in the forward pack, while utility back Antonio Ale’s return from suspension has worked wonders in improving the Saints’ attacking potential.

The depth in the club is also evident through great performances from Shannon Peters and Daniel Bain, who have justified their recent promotions from first division.

Hancock said his side will attempt to carry on their strong form in pursuit of a top three finish.

“You need two bites at the cherry, especially this year. I think we got lost after those first two games we had. We were on such a high after coming back to beat Cowra in our second match that when we came up against Panthers, we just got outplayed. It just reinforced what we had to do to improve,” he said.

“There’s still a long way to go and we don’t want all that hard work to be for nothing. 

“If we lose one of these next two matches then we’re going to have to work exceptionally hard over the back half of the season to hold onto that top three spot – especially when you’ve got Oberon and CYMS towards the end.”

Pat’s next match will be against Lithgow.