Esther Hotham scores hat-trick for St Pat's en route to 5-0 women's Premier League Hockey win over Orange EX-Services

Well, she did just that, and more.

Hotham announced her return to the Saints top squad in a big way on Saturday as she hit a hat-trick in a 5-0 victory.

The Saints did the bulk of their damage during a furious opening half of hockey.

Pat's did little wrong on the way to building a 4-0 advantage at the break.

The Saints eventually broke through late into the opening quarter after seizing the momentum early, with Hotham making herself the first Pat's player on the scoreboard for 2020.

Then Pat's turned up the tempo with a devastating second quarter of hockey.

An early strike from Hotham was followed up by a brutal back-to-back blow from Kristy Ekert and Millie Fulton to almost put the game to bed early.

But Hotham had her eyes of completing a special hat-trick in her return to Premier League Hockey and she completed it late in the third term.

It's a stellar start for the Saints who were a little uncertain about how their hockey would hold up with the later start to the 2020 season.

Ekert said it was great to watch Hotham unleash some quality hockey on Orange in an unfamiliar setup.

"She was great to watch and great to play with," she said.

"She's never really played the structure that we use but she just went to where she was told and just slots in nicely to the team."

Like every team in the competition it had been a tricky build up to the delayed opening round with only a handful of stick sessions available to take advantage of.

But Ekert said you wouldn't have know that was the case with the way the Saints worked together in Orange.

"There were some very nice passages of play from girls, especially for the lack of practice that we've had," she said.

"The girls probably had three sticks before the game. We were just focused on doing the basics really, not trying to excel. A focus on trapping the ball was important on that Orange turf, and so was moving forward together."

The bulk of the Saints goals on Saturday came late in each term and that could point to some strong early season fitness for the blue and white.

"We probably could have had a few more goals but we got a little tired towards the end. It was actually quite warm out there, believe it or not," Ekert said.

"A lot of the girls in this team are quite fit so it's good to know that they're still running hard right through to the end."

Victory has taken the Saints to an early lead at the top of the ladder, just ahead of the Lithgow Panthers who were 4-0 victors over Orange CYMS.