The reduced five-team season got underway over the weekend and Winwood-Smith has raised concerns that such a number isn’t a strong sign for the future of the competition.

“I think the PLH men’s comp is a dying comp. I don’t think it’s got many years left. It’s something that’s started to wear down a few years ago with Dubbo pulling out and Parkes pulling out,” he said.

“You have a five-team comp, which is good in the sense that it will be close and competitive. But if we lose another team this year or next year then the comp falls over.

“I think it’s important for us to go out and play well. We’ve prepared well to give ourselves every opportunity to play well in this competition this year.”

The men’s competition lost Dubbo prior to the start of last season and this year Parkes announced they wouldn’t be able to field a team due to a lack of players.

Bathurst City had a brief stint in the competition before they also withdrew.

The remaining teams are St Pat’s, Lithgow Panthers, Lithgow Zig Zag and Orange Wanderers.

“Every town has their own responsibilities and their own challenges, so hopefully Parkes can come back into it. Even still, we’ve struggled for players ourselves,” Winwood-Smith said.

“Even if you get another team, if not necessarily about the numbers of teams, it’s the depth within them. If we have 12 or 13 players every week there’s not this wave of players coming through.

“Players are getting older. We’re an older team in the comp, and we’ve probably only got one or two years left in that core group before they start thinking about what they want to do.

“Pat’s are the unique ones in that they’ve probably got that depth but you can’t have a one-team comp.”

Team numbers may be down by Pat’s and Souths showed on Saturday that the standard of hockey hasn’t dropped.

The Bathurst clubs played out an entertaining 4-all draw at Bob Roach Field.

But for how much longer will we see such contests between Central West clubs?

Winwood-Smith believes we could see competitions return to a local level.

“I think the horse has already bolted,” he said.

“It might come back to a town comp. If we didn’t have Premier League Hockey and it came back to that then that might be a good thing, I don’t know.

“The women’s comp is quite strong but with the men’s I’m not sure how sustainable it is as a five team comp.”