THEY were the team that was not meant to be, but now St Pat's White are the Bathurst Men's Hockey Association first grade premiers.
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On Saturday when St Pat's White defeated Souths Hawkies 5-2 in the men's grand final at the Cooke Hockey Complex, it was with a sense of elation and satisfaction.
Saints skipper Brent Naylor, who scored a hat-trick in the decider, explained his team was not initially intended to form part of the competition.
"When they made the teams up, there were a few of us that didn't get listed. My brother Matt, Ben Weal, Aaron Conroy - there were quite a few," he said.
"So I hit them up about about putting in another team. We scrapped the bottom of the barrel getting together as many people as we could, the older generation formed the nucleus and the younger guys filled in the rest of the spots.
"There were quite a few people saying we shouldn't have done it ... there were quite a few people knocking us saying we shouldn't have put the team in.
"So yeah, it was really satisfying to win that."
A fortnight earlier in the major semi-final, Souths had gotten the better of the Saints in a golden goal thriller, Jono Cole finding the mark in extra-time to give Hawkies a 4-3 victory.
But on Saturday the Saints hardly gave Souths a look in. They scored the first three goals of the match in the opening half to set up their title success.
While Saints goalkeeper Lachlan Martin was still tested at times across the 70 minutes - one of Hawkies goals coming from a penalty stroke - White's lead never looked in threat.
"We just nailed them from the start and kept the pressure on," Naylor said.
"We were up 3-0 and while they came back to make it 3-1, at that stage we just sort of parked the bus and defended."
Naylor finished the match with three goals, while Issac Darlington and Jamie Wright also found the mark for the victors.
Souths goalkeeper John Rudge conceded that the Saints were too good, but also paid tribute to his team-mates for a solid season.
"They played really well, they played with a lot of enthusiasm, they had good structures and they really executed their game plan," he said. "They really caught us off guard, we were always playing catch up.
"This was more a social side after Premier League folded, but we did it with the same 11-12 guys the whole year. So yeah, I'm extremely proud of all the guys and the way they approached it this season."
