Although counting has not finished, it appears certain the Berejiklian government will hold the two rural seats it contested on the weekend.

The Premier says she is relieved; her deputy, John Barilaro, is delighted. Both had been bracing for huge swings against the government, and they certainly got those.

In Cootamundra, which Katrina Hodgkinson won for the National Party at the last state election with a margin of 20.4 per cent, the lead in two-party-preferred terms has been cut to 10.4 per cent.

Murray, formerly held by the Nationals’ well-regarded deputy leader and Education Minister, Adrian Piccoli, with a  margin of  25.2 per cent, has been reduced to just 3.5 per cent.

But terrible though the swings were, the feared catastrophe – the loss of either seat to the Nationals’ stalkers, the Shooters Fishers and Farmers Party – has not happened.

Last November the loss of Orange to the Shooters signalled how furious the government’s rural base had become. Local-government amalgamations and the ban on greyhound racing were so unpopular they cut short the political careers of the Nationals’ leadership, and indirectly, that of the then premier, Mike Baird.

That will not be the fate of Gladys Berejiklian or Mr Barilaro. Even so, their government must now regroup and rethink its strategy.

It’s now 18 months until the next state election and the government has plenty of work to do.

Opposition leader Luke Foley remains largely unknown but a ReachTEL poll published last week suggests Ms Berejiklian is as well.

So without a charismatic leader to increase local polling, each government MP – including Bathurst MP Paul Toole – will be left to fend for themselves.

The SFF has talked up its assault on Nationals seats at the 2019 election but, if the Bathurst experience is anything to go by, the party is already having difficulty matching the rhetoric with actions.

The SFF had planned to announced its candidate for Bathurst six months but still no-one has been found to fit the bill, and every week that goes by will only make it harder for them to peg back the 15 per cent margin held by Mr Toole.

The clock is ticking, and the election countdown has started already.