Trailing 1-0 at half-time after a goal from Parkes' Andrew Bourke, St Pat's scored three goals in the second half to claim a 3-1 win thanks to goals from Lachie Howard, Tyler Willott and Jaden Ekert, an impressive start to the season considering the Saints were missing a number of key players.

St Pat's coach Richard Sharp said the result was a great way to start the new campaign.

"We had a few players out, some of our big guns in Shane Conroy, Fletcher Norris and Blake Davis, so we were missing a few midfielders," he said.

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"We had to be a little bit inventive in the midfield and put some players in positions they hadn't played in a long time or if not before.

"I was pretty happy with how the boys handled it and came through. Credit to them.

"Parkes had a pretty young side and a few debutants because they had some players away too. They controlled the game well early and we struggled to compete."

Sharp explained that he made a number of changes at half-time that helped pave the way for the St Pat's win.

"Parkes jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first half and basically at half-time I changed a few things around," he said.

"I changed our structure, put an extra player into the midfield. We then started to mount some pressure on them and grabbed the momentum and changed the game fairly well.

"We got on top in the second half and equalised and went ahead in the third quarter 2-1 and scored another pretty close to the bell in the fourth quarter."

The result puts St Pat's into second after one round, with Lithgow Storm topping the ladder on goal difference after a massive 11-0 win over Orange Wanderers.

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