BEFORE this week, ‘semi-final’ was a dirty word for the St Pat’s women’s Premier League Hockey side as coach Jaden Ekert drummed into his squad the need to focus on one game at a time.
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But now the dirty word has become a focus word as this Saturday the Saints will host Lithgow Panthers in the major semi-final.
It is a match the Saints will host at Bob Roach Field as their game-by-game approach helped them to the minor premiership.
“Nope, we didn’t talk finals, not at all. It creates too much of a distraction and I think if we did, we may not have finished first just because girls start to think too far ahead rather than worrying about each game,” Ekert said.
“Gosh, we worked really hard to get it [minor premiership]. We had two draws that should have been wins, we had one loss that should have been a win – those are things that can really divide your season, so we had to work really hard for six weeks to get what we needed.
“We’ve ticked off two goals which is excellent, they were finishing first and getting a home semi, but now we’ve got two more boxes to tick.”
Within Ekert’s squad are players with a host of finals experience, a bulk of them part of the Saints outfit that made it to last year’s preliminary final.
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Since then Maddy Boyce and Sarah Watterson made the switch from Souths while talented Dubbo goalkeeper Lilli-Rai Campbell now shares the shot-blocking duties with Tracey Gunning.
The coach is hoping that this year his players can go deeper into the finals and from what he has seen thus far, knows they have the potential to do so.
“In terms of what we wanted to do last year, we’ve done this year. We were two points off finishing second last year, whereas this year it was let’s finish first, let’s put our destiny in our own hands and that way we are not relying on anyone else,” Ekert said.
“Last year we had pretty much the same side, except for a couple of girls who have come across. Does it add strength? Of course it does. Does it change your mindset? No, I don’t think so.”
As much as Ekert has confidence in his players, he knows that Panthers do present a formidable opponent.
Pat’s beat them 3-2 in their first meeting of 2018 and drew the other 2-all. The last time the blue and whites beat Panthers in a final was the 2013 premiership decider.
“Panthers have been the benchmark with City for the last three or four years. I think people expect them to be there and thereabouts, which they are, but hockey seasons are two separate competitions – your round games then your post-season, the finals,” Ekert said.
“It all starts again, we’ve worked hard, we’ve ticked the boxes in our preparation.”
Saturday’s major semi-final starts at 12.20pm at Bob Roach Field.
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