ST Pat's coach Kurt Hancock left Wade Park on Saturday with two Group 10 premier league competition points, but the mentor wasn't overly happy about the way the blue and whites earned them.

The defending premiers secured a 40-16 victory over Orange Hawks, but only really produced 10 minutes of good football as the Saints drifted in and out of a fairly lacklustre penultimate round performance.

"Not overly happy, no," Hancock said.

"We only completed at 50 per cent in both halves. Obviously Hawks are struggling a bit and I think that showed today, but we were way off the mark.

"We wanted to come here and put in a professional performance and that never happened."

Alarm bells rang early on at Wade Park when the visitors shot out to a 12-0 lead thanks to converted tries to the classy Garry Reilly and monster back rower Brady Cheshire.

After the events of last week in Lithgow - Hawks calling it quits after the first half - many would have predicted the Orange side to fold when faced with such a deficit.

They didn't.

The enthusiasm of such a young two blues outfit ensured the hosts got back into the round 17 contest, with impressive under 18 gun Kyle Robbins and then Matt Fuller both crossing the stripe in the first half.

Cody Robbins nailed both conversions and Hawks went into the break level at 12-all.

But despite their valiance, Hawks' dire stock situation caught up with them in the second half.

The visitors stormed out of the blocks when play resumed, scoring 18 points in nine minutes to effectively put the result to bed.

Mick Armstrong scored the first and Harrison McCarthy bagged the second before his flick pass sent Tim Collins flying down the right wing, scoring in the corner while copping an accidental knee from Robbins.

The Hawks fullback was placed on report, and the foul on Collins while in the process of scoring was enough for referee Chris Redding to award a potential eight-point try.

Reilly duly slotted both the conversion and the resulting penalty to catapult Hancock's men out to 30-12. It was the only good period of play St Pat's put together.

Undeterred, Hawks kept coming, and Jack Aumuller's try on debut in the 62nd minute was a true reward for effort.

However, St Pat's proved too good to run out 24-point winners.

Hawks player-coach Jared Brodrick was thrilled with the way his side bounced back after a horror trip to Lithgow last week. They had just eight players with first grade experience in Saturday's 17.

"[The first half] was one of our better ones, we went out there and said to ourselves 'Let's try and get some pride back in our jumper after last week'," Brodrick said.

"The boys dug deep after being down 12-nil and put in the effort.

"In the second half, we just ran out of puff ... but we kept positive."

Ahead of next weekend's final round showdown with minor premier CYMS, Hancock believes the equation for St Pat's is simple.

"We've got to be better," he said.

"And we'll need to be way better for Orange CYMS next week, that's for sure."

ST PAT'S 40 (Garry Reilly, Brady Cheshire, Mick Armstrong, Harrison McCarthy, Tim Collins, Corey Averio, Adam Morton tries; Garry Reilly 6 goals) defeated ORANGE HAWKS 16 (Jack Aumuller, Kyle Robbins, Matty Fuller tries; Cody Robbins 2 goals)