St Pat's thump Dubbo Macquarie Raiders 54-10 in Western Under 18s elimination semi-final

The Saints' ball security and ability to still move the ball wide in challenging conditions proved to be the decisive factors in the crushing victory on home turf.

Lachlan Fitzsimmons and Cooper Earsman each scored hat tricks for the runaway Saints, who stay alive in the inaugural Western 18s finals series for another week.

Pat's coach Matt Dunn was impressed by his teams ability to find the right mix of control and creativity in the boggy conditions.

"Our completion rate was pretty good. The boys improved at the little things that I addressed at half-time and I'm so proud of their effort," he said.

"We said to the boys they needed to play wet weather footy - early kicks, turn them around, hold the footy, keep them down their end and wait for mistakes.

"Our back rowers and my centres a wrap because they run a good line and they didn't go away from their structure. They tightened everything up but were still hitting those holes, especially when the big guys were getting tired.

"Because of that we were able to still get expansive in wet weather football."

Raiders coach David Peachey said the Saints played better to the conditions and played to the right mindset.

"Our boys were excited for finals but we've obviously come up against a very good St Pat's side today, on a cold and miserable Bathurst day. But that's what finals is about - Pat's turned up with the right attitude and did the job exceptionally well," he said.

"It's been a great year from my boys to make finals. I've got a few top age guys that I'll lose next year but the majority of my guys will be here next year.

"Now that they've had a taste of finals, and what this new competition is like, they'll turn up hungrier next time around."

Earsman needed less than two minutes to find what would be the first of his tries.

Pat's put themselves on the back foot with an error from the kick-off but when the Raiders couldn't punish them the Saints were able to get the ball back up the other end and score through Alex Davies.

The Saints once again coughed up the ball from the kick-off but this time the visitors were able to take advantage through a Jaedyn Murray try, bringing the score back to 10-6.

Completions remained hard for both teams to string together but Saints continued to be the side making more metres down the ground, and that soon led to Dylan Branda's try down the left side in the 14^th minute.

Fitzsimmons then scored in similar fashion, on the back of a penalty to Pat's.

Davies made a crucial chasedown tackle to stop Braith Carroll from scoring, and on the back of that effort Pat's found another try before half-time through Earsman to make it 26-6 at the break.

The Saints then put the game completely out of reach for the Raiders with three tries inside the first 12 minutes of the new half.

Earsman strolled across for his hat trick try then Will Poole intercepted the ball and ran out of his own half to score.

Fitzsimmons dived across from dummy half to find his second try of the day, with Poole's conversion pushing the score out to 42-6.

Xavier Wells scored down the left wing to take the Raiders into double digits but late scoring efforts from the Saints' Manny Tobin and Fitzsimmons got the hosts past the half century mark.

For Peachey it ends an up-and-down season for his men, but the build up to Saturday's match was also a reminder that there are many things more important than football.

Peachey said loss of his former Cronulla Sharks teammate Paul Green to suicide is a reminder of how important it is to look out for one another, and he wants his juniors to keep that in mind.

"For those kids football season now comes to an end so it's about staying in touch, making sure that you're mentally healthy and emotionally strong," he said.

"It's so hard trying to come to terms that we were just there with Paul. It's something we won't get answers for.

"Our boys need to keep in touch to ask 'How are you going?' and make sure everything's okay. It's hard when you lose a mate because there's no coming back from that."

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