BEGINNING the Group 10 premier league season with three consecutive defeats was certainly not what St Pat’s coach Kurt Hancock had hoped for when 2017 began, yet it is not all bad news for the blue and whites.
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On Friday night Hancock’s men lost 24-10 to a Panthers outfit many followers of the competition believe will challenge for the premiership, that loss adding to a 16-8 defeat at the hands of defending champions Mudgee and falling 46-4 to 2016 grand finalists Orange CYMS.
But if his side can build on the performance they produced at Carrington Park when holding Bathurst Panthers scoreless in the opening half, the Saints will climb the ladder.
Against a Panthers outfit packed full of talent and playing in front of their home crowd, the visitors scrambled well in defence.
From four line drop-outs over the course of the contest, Panthers managed to score off the back of just one.
When Pat’s winger Bailey Waldron was sin-binned for 10 minutes after slowing down the ruck, the Saints lifted and prevented their rivals from capitalising on their one-man advantage.
Ultimately that effort in defence cost the Saints as they fatigued, but it did give Hancock hope better things will come.
“I think it was about the 20 minute mark when we finally had a bit of ball in their half,” he said.
“That was a telling blow, they had all the field position early. Even though we went into half-time with the lead, we emptied out our tank early with our d [defence].
“You can’t question the fellas’ efforts, but fatigue came early there. We started to miss our one-on-ones there and that was just through fatigue, we have just got to learn to manage that first part of the game better.
“I thought our kicking game wasn’t crash hot either, we couldn’t get any position through our kicking game. I thought we came out of our half alright, but we couldn’t finish it and gain that ascendancy.
“When fatigue set in we went away from what we were doing, but I think for close to 60 minutes of the game we were the better side.”
Meeting the top three sides from last season in the opening three rounds of this year’s competition has been hard for the Saints, especially with two of their more creative players in hooker Benjamin John and five-eighth Garry Reilly missing.
But the blue and whites forward pack – led by props Greg Behan and Brady Cheshire – stood up well to Panthers’ talented big men.
“I mean we are close, we know we are close and the effort is there,” Hancock said.
“You can’t question that effort.”