THEY'VE broken through for an unprecedented half century of uninterrupted victories but the St Pat's Group 10 league tag side will be hoping the run doesn't end at that number when 2021 is done and dusted.
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The Saints claimed their 50th successive Group 10 win on Saturday at Sid Kallas Oval with a 22-4 result over the Cowra Magpies, claiming a huge milestone and extending one of the most dominant streaks ever seen in modern Central West sport.
However, with the threat of an extended COVID-19 lockdown hanging over competitions across the region there's a chance that Pat's and their rivals may not be able to play out a finals series.
That would be a big disappointment in particular for the Saints who are so close to making it four straight grand final wins, and three of them as an undefeated season.
Saints coach Mish Somers, like everyone else across the state, has her fingers crossed for a good outcome.
"After we didn't get to play last year the girls were really keen and excited to see what we could do and if we could go all the way again," she said.
"If it does get cancelled then there will be a lot of disappointed people out there, but we have to stay safe and go with what Group 10 decides to do in the end.
"We'll keep doing individual stuff over the next week to prepare for Sunday and into the finals. We'll do our best to stay active and keep the footy in our hands but we'll be going week by week as developments come through."
Such uncertainty still doesn't take the shine of what Pat's achieved on Saturday in Cowra.
Somers said it's an amazing feeling for everyone in the team to have compiled such a remarkable run of wins.
"It's a massive achievement and a lot of the girls have been together over all of those 50 games," she said.
"We haven't had to rebuild at any point. We've had a core group year in and year out. This year was probably the one with the most changes that we've had to make, with a couple of uni girls coming in, but they've all played the game before.
"We've never had to rehash things too much and there's a lot of very talented girls in this side."
Pat's started the 2021 league tag season with 38 straight victories in the competition, dating back to the 2017 preliminary final, and scored their 12th win of the year thanks to the weekend's performance against Magpies.
Cowra gave Pat's a big push during the opening half of the game but Somers said her team were able to use their experience to take total control in the second half and capitalise on a numbers advantage.
"We were a bit scrappy in the first half and Cowra really stuck it to us. They're a great defensive side and we had to put a lot of work in to earn our points," she said.
"They had a player sent off for 10 minutes and they just ran out of legs and we were able to get over the top of them. Our girls picked up our game a bit at that point, and we were able to find a couple of holes in the defence.
"Paige Hay played well in the middle of the field. She works hard in attack and defence. Erin Naden made some great tags at the back when Cowra got through, and Taneisha Pringle had a pretty good game on the wing."
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