St Pat's lost its first two games against Bathurst Panthers and Orange Hawks in round one and two respectively and with an undefeated Mudgee Dragons coming to down on the day the club celebrates 20 years since its 2001 premiership victory, the stakes are high.

But Merritt isn't too worried, as he's been pleased with how his team has performed in the opening two weeks.

"Things are still pretty positive, because we've been in every game we've been in," he said.

"We sort of killed ourselves with errors and not taking opportunities when they arrive but we're still working hard.

"The mood is still pretty good around the boys. We've just got to fix those little things up.

"I don't think we're out of it yet but you don't want to be losing anymore. You want to be getting a bit of confidence under your belt."

Merritt cited his team's defence as an area that needs to see improvement.

"We're leaking too many points," he admitted.

"Defence is key for us, to really turn up.

"I feel there's three or four blokes in the squad that have that will to win and the rest are just poking along in second gear. That will be addressed on Thursday night, to get us out of that second gear and challenging teams.

"The focus is on us. We need to really work on ourselves. I think if you're going to win the premiership, you're going to need to beat the best teams in Group 10.

"We're focusing on us and we'll turn up on Saturday and give them a red hot crack."

Merritt said he's looking forward to playing in front of a big crowd at Jack Arrow Sporting Complex this Saturday, for the club's 20 year reunion of its 2001 28-6 win over none other then the Mudgee Dragons.

"It's good for us to play in front of our home crowd and it's our 20 year reunion for the St Pat's grand final back in 2001, so it'll be pleasing to get the win in front of the boys," he said.

Kick-off in Group 10 premier league between St Pat's and Mudgee is at 5pm.

In lower grades, under 18s women's league tag gets underway at 12pm, women's league tag at 1pm, under 18s at 2.15pm and first division at 3pm.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: