It's a tough start for St Pat's under revised Tom Nelson Premiership draw

While the initial draw for the Western-wide competition had the Saints scheduled for a round one bye before hosting Dubbo CYMS at Jack Arrow Oval, a new version has now been released.

It has St Pat's drawn to play the Nyngan Tigers in round one. It was those two sides which clashed in last season's grand final.

Though the under 18 playing rosters at both clubs have been altered since the Tigers bettered the Saints 26-12 on grand final day last year, the match will still be a blockbuster.

It's one that returning Saints coach Matt Dunn is now preparing his side for both physically and mentally.

"We actually play Nyngan now in the first round instead of having the bye, so our mindset will have to change a bit," Dunn said.

"We were thinking about that second week against Dubbo CYMS, but now we're fronting up to Nyngan straight up and that will be a real test because they'll be very, very strong again.

"Nyngan haven't lost a lot of players, I think they've lost three or four players maybe, their fullback goes out and their nine goes out and maybe one or two others from their starting side last year.

"So they'll be strong again and their 16s lost their grand final last year in double extra-time, so those players coming up will be very strong again.

"It will be a tough test for us, but at the same time the boys will look forward to it, it's going to give them a yardstick of where they're going to be at."

The changes to the draw were forced after the withdrawal of the Wellington Cowboys from under 18s and Cowra Magpies from the first grade Peter McDonald Premiership.

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Dunn initially thought that would mean a bye in round 12 for his side instead of travelling to Wellington.

But that was not what eventuated.

"I thought it would be Wellington pulled out of 18s so whoever has them gets the bye and Cowra pulls out of firsts, so whoever had them gets the bye," Dunn said.

"But the draw has changed completely for us ... that's the way the cookie crumbles I suppose."

Across the first five rounds Dunn's side now has Nyngan, a local derby with Bathurst Panthers to be played on a Friday night, an away clash with Orange CYMS and a pair of byes.

"The beauty is we play at Jack Arrow round one so it's a home game first up," Dunn said.

"But with our draw now, we have our byes round two and round five, so it's going to be hard to build momentum at the start of the season.

"It's going to have to be a real focus of ours that even though we're not playing, we're going to have to be up and about to make sure we're not losing our rhythm and routine.

"Byes at that time of year aren't the best, you don't mind one of them, but to have our two straight up, it does make it hard. It will be quite a challenging period."

The other features of the new draw include Dunn's side being part of two under 18s magic rounds - one at Cowra on June 17, the other on July 21 at Mudgee.

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