WHEN the Saints click, rivals best beware.
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That is the message from St Pat's coach Jaden Ekert, who says his side is yet to produce their best hockey in this year's women's Premier League competition.
Six rounds into the 14-round competition, the Saints are sitting third on the ladder behind the undefeated Lithgow Panthers and Orange CYMS. They are they two teams to have beaten the blue and whites thus far.
Naturally Ekert would prefer to see his side leading the way, but he is well aware of the talent he has at his disposal.
He believes defending the premiership crown the Saints won last year is a realistic goal if his players can string together four quality quarters of hockey.
"Aside from those two defeats everything else has been okay, but as a coach I'm never happy," Ekert laughed.
"We haven't clicked yet and that game where we click, everyone is just going to be like 'Wow'. We are playing good quarters at the moment and then playing bad quarters, we're not putting everything together as a complete game yet.
"You will always make mistakes, everyone knows that, but we haven't clicked as a group as yet. Strikers clicking with our midfield, midfield clicking with our defence, we haven't done that yet.
"Well, we've done it in patches, but we haven't done it for a whole game and when that happens it's going to be pretty to watch."
While goalkeeper Tracey Gunning and Julie Hanman retired from Premier League Hockey after the Saints won the 2018 grand final, a bulk of the title winning team returned this year.
Ekert has slotted new, young talents into his side as well and has watched them adjust to the challenges of taking on the best players in the Central West.
The Saints began their defence by beating Confederates (2-1) and Zig Zag (6-0), but were well below their best when falling to CYMS (4-0) in Orange in round three.
Though Ekert's side has since lost away to Panthers (2-0), they created plenty of opportunities in that match, and in its victories over Bathurst City (2-0) and Ex-Services (2-0) featured some slick passages of play.
"At the moment I'm happy, but I'm not ecstatic. We are building and we are starting to build well," Ekert said.
"The next group of games too, I think it's time for us to hit our straps and really take off, so we'll see what happens.
"I think after the June long weekend, it's free-flowing from there on in, so we can build."
Both Premier League Hockey competitions have a general bye this Saturday due to Hockey NSW open state championships.
