PLAYING Lithgow Zig Zag on its home turf – it is a prospect that has made St Pat’s nervous in recent seasons and as the Saints prepare for this Saturday’s road trip, it is once more in the expectation of a tough 70 minutes.
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St Pat’s currently holds a 10-point buffer over Lithgow Zig Zag on the men’s Premier League Hockey ladder given its undefeated status, but Saints coach Shane Conroy says his players have worked hard for that.
And he expects any points this Saturday to be hard-earned as well.
“It seems like we haven’t had an easy win, every game we’ve had to earn it, which is good and it shows the competition is pretty close on its day,” Conroy said.
“With Zig Zag, they’re always a team that seems to push us, no matter what the situation they’ve been in over the years, they always seem to push us.
“You could nearly say they’re our bogey team, so it’s going to be a tough game. They are the team I picked at the start of the year as the team to watch.”
When meeting earlier this season in Bathurst, nothing split the rivals at full-time as they drew 2-all. Conroy was so impressed by what he saw he labelled Zig Zag “ the benchmark of this competition.”
Though the Saints’ fortunes have been better than that of Zig Zag since that meeting, Conroy’s respect for the Lithgow outfit remains the same.
“They’re a bit formidable at home, they seem to lift that bit extra at home, so we’ll definitely have to be on our game,” he said.
“They are pretty quick up front and if Lachie Sharp is playing for them, if he’s not in Sydney, he is nearly a Kookaburra, he just got [national] 21s player of the tournament, that definitely adds to the attacking potency for them.
“We’ll just play what’s in front of us, set our structures and hopefully shut him out of the game.
“So we’ll just treat it like any other game and keep building.”
Pat’s will make the trip to Lithgow without the attacking skills Jaden Ekert, who will be coaching the Saints’ women’s outfit in Bathurst against Zig Zag.
Defender Tobbie Muldoon is still recovering from injury, but other that that pair, the Saints will have a full squad to choose from.
Conroy wants to see those players continue to improve as the Saints draw closer to a major semi-final appearance. “We don’t want to look too far ahead, but we’ve got this tough one then Souths and Orange to go and they’re going to be the really good games to test us before the semis,” he said.
St Pat’s will take on Zig Zag in Lithgow from 1.30pm, while fellow Bathurst outfit Souths will sit out with a bye.
