THEY currently hold two premiership trophies, but St Pat's Old Boys captain Adam Ryan has declared his side his hungry to make it a hat-trick.
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St Pat's have been confirmed as one of 12 teams which will contest the inaugural Western Zone club knockout competition this summer.
It provides Ryan's side the chance to add a Western crown to the Bathurst Orange Inter District Cricket and Bonnor Cup Twenty20 champions mantles they already hold.
"We put it to a vote with the side and they were pretty unanimous they wanted to have a crack," Ryan said.
"You definitely want to win every match possible, we'll definitely be putting our best team forward that is available and go after it."
But the Saints are not the only defending premiers keen to flex their cricketing muscle on a regional level - Lachlan Premier League's 2021-22 champions the Cambridge Cats plus Dubbo's Whitney Cup holders Dubbo CYMS were also amongst the teams to nominate.
They will provide stiff competition, but for Ryan and his Saints that is part of the lure of the knockout.
It gives them the chance to see how they stack up on a Western Zone level.
"That's the interesting part and it will give you a bit of a measuring stick as to what the standard of our regular round competition is, which is going to be good," Ryan said.
"It's like the club challenge in the NRL, the next season after winning a premiership you don't always have the same squad. There will be changes, but we're really looking forward to it.
"It will be a bit like rugby union and rugby league play it, and soccer now too, it will spread the club rivalries around more and hopefully it will be a healthy competition.
"It's always exciting to play a new competition with new teams and spread the game."
As well as the three defending premiers, Cowra club Valleys plus Whitney Cup teams Macquarie, Newtown, RSL Colts and South Dubbo have nominated for the competition.
Then there are another four BOIDC teams in Bathurst City, Centrals, Orange CYMS, Orange City who make up the 12.
Though Ryan's intent is very much to win the knockout, he's glad to see Bathurst City in the draw as well.
"I think that's fantastic, they've been bringing juniors through and it's great to see them having a crack at it," he said.
"It will be great to fly the flag for Bathurst, us two sides going in it, and it would be great if one of us can go on and win it and keep Bathurst as frontrunners in what's happening in cricket."
Though the fixtures are yet to be finalised, the knockout will run over four Sundays.
While many players spread across the 12 sides have done battle in representative fixtures, the knockout will no doubt add new spice to those rivalries.
"They boys always love new opposition and they just love the chance to play more cricket," Ryan said.
"We've played a fair bit of cricket over the years now against the Dubbo guys and we've got a few guys within our side that have played with them at times, having Matty Skinner in our Bonnor side and that sort of stuff.
"We've got a pretty healthy rivalry and relationship with those guys and it's always good to play one another. It will be great to have some new rivalries."
The start of the new competition is scheduled for January 22, 2023 with the decider on February 26.
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