The 40-8 defeat to the third-placed Dragons at Glen Willow leaves St Pat's with just three wins from 13 matches in 2019, meaning they're all but out of finals contentions.

Bathurst's McCoy White nodded that it was indeed a tough game for the visitors but attributes the loss to a constant change up in players and injuries.

"It was a tough game for us, we didn't complete many sets and just kept dropping the ball," he said.

"We've struggled a lot through the year with injuries and keeping the same side out there.

"We don't really have many at training, hopefully we can build for a better season next year."

Mudgee's Tom Shearman opened up the scoring less than ten minutes after kick-off which was later followed by a try to Lee Hicks.

Jared Robinson and Casey Burgess jumped onto the scoring bandwagon alongside captain-coach Jack Littlejohn who converted Robinson's try to give the red and white outfit a 20-0 half-time lead.

Robinson leapt over the try line soon after the break to extend the Dragons' lead by four.

Next up was Shearman who clocked his second try of the day, followed by a try to Jayden Brown.

In between two tries to Bathurst, it was Robinson who finished up the scoring for Mudgee, resulting in a 40-8 win.

Mudgee's Ben Thompson labelled his side's 32-point win as "a good, tough win".

"It's good to get the win, but we definitely need to get better," he said.

"They're a middle rank team, we went into half-time leading 20-0, they bombed three tries but didn't put the cream on them so it could've been a different story.

"Everyone just stuck in there, little combinations are starting to get back to their best."

Thompson says the Dragons are feeling confident heading into their round 17 clash against Orange CYMS with Nick Harvey back in gear.

"We're going to have to go in confident. We've got big Nick Harvey back next week, he's been out for a while," he said.

"We've got to keep winning to be competitive at the back end of the year.