That was the sentiment from Premier League Hockey vice-president Nicole Riley after the competition was forced to make late alterations to its plan for the final day of the regular 2021 season.

Bathurst was set to host the second of the women's double-header Saturdays for the season as well as a men's match in a bumper program of nine games.

But the Bathurst Hockey Association informed PLH that due to its COVID-19 health and safety concerns, its venue would no longer be available. The Orange Hockey Association followed suit.

It saw the PLH executive and club delegates stage a zoom meeting on Thursday night to find a solution. In the end Orange agreed to host the men's fixture between Wanderers and Parkes while Lithgow staged all other games.

"We have tried to make everything as fair and transparent as possible. Yes it's not ideal, but we still get to play hockey and that's what a majority of players wanted to do, they just wanted to be able to play," Riley said.

Panthers ladies coach Mick Millar said it was a less than ideal situation with himself and five of his key players unable to attend Saturday's matches due to COVID-19 restrictions.

"I'm not entirely happy with the decision to go ahead but I've agreed to let the ladies play in the best interest of keeping the competition going," he said.

Fortunately it turned out to be in the best interest of his purple ladies as they met with Bathurst City and Bathurst Souths for a double-header resulting in a minor premiership title.

Panthers secured a 2-0 victory over Bathurst City in the morning, and fill-in coaches Jess Luchetti and Amelia Leard were pleased with the performance.

"The game was a really gusty effort we turned it on in the third quarter and that's when we scored both our goals to get the lead," Luchetti said.

"The girls played consistently in the fourth quarter which saw us the win," she said.

It was a long break between matches with the ladies stepping out in chilly conditions on sunset to meet with Souths.

The match remained scoreless until after halftime when Panthers, hungry for their premiership title, found the back of the net with a shot from Maddy McLean.

With less than five seconds on the clock Brenna Croker put her body on the line blocking a chance for Souths to equalize but a rebounce goal brought the score to 1-all.

In the last quarter Panthers kept the momentum with Kellsey Charlton leveraging the score 2-1 but Souths retaliated within a minute resulting in a 2-all draw.

"It's always hard playing a second game and backing it up but the girls came out fired up and played really well," Luchetti said.

"We needed a draw or a win so we're happy with the result."

"For me it was a team effort but our centres did play really great, we had Chelsea Marshall, Rylee Millar and Mackenzie Stewart."

Luchetti said the matches held in Lithgow were a good opportunity for players to get their games in heading into semi finals.

"I think it's important that we do play and there were seven teams playing off for the fourth position to make semi finals so the games needed to be played and it was really important for everyone to have that opportunity to get a game," she said.

She said as her squad heads into semis next week she looked forward to an at home advantage.

"We're still sitting first so we'll be playing the major semi next week at home which is a great advantage for us."

"I'm positive that we can come away hopefully with a win but if not because it's a major, we do have that extra crack at it which is nice to have that bit of reassurance if we do have an off day or a bad game that we can come and play the next semi final," she said.

"Everyone has been playing really well, today was tricky because we didn't have a coach and we are missing some girls due to COVID restrictions, we normally have some Sydney girls who come and play and we were missing Clare Bosman who lives at Mount Vic."

"But overall a great, gutsy effort from our girls."