Saddler stars while Priest makes a big impact on return in bounce-back win

Suspension ruled the Mudgee Dragons' player-coach out of round one against Orange CYMS but he wasted no time getting stuck in.

Aggressive as always, Priest was one of Mudgee's best in their 34-14 win at Apex Oval.

However, he admitted he still has a bit of improvement in him.

"I've been a bit worried (about returning), I'm getting a bit older and was happy to get through the minutes I got through," he said.

"I made a few errors so I'll need to fix that up but I was pretty happy."

For the Raiders, they kept with Mudgee for the majority of the game but errors and penalties cost them in the end.

"That win against (Dubbo) CYMS took a bit out of us physically," Macquarie's Jack Kavanagh said.

"We had a lot of blokes carrying niggles into the game so there is no excuses there, that game took a lot out of us.

"We just weren't there today, we were a different team to last week."

Mudgee halfback Pacey Stockton was on fire in the opening 20 minutes of the game, setting up David West for the first try of the afternoon before scoring one of his own.

Kane McDermott got the Raiders back into the match after darting over under the posts before Macquarie were reduced to 12 men for the second time in as many weeks.

Following a string of penalties, Macquarie's Alex Ronayne was sent to the sin bin just before half time with the score 12-6.

The Dragons would make the most of the extra player advantage and score through Ethan Pegus out wide.

Back from a short break, Ronayne broke through to score next before Camden Sutton hit back for Mudgee.

Leading 22-10, Zac Saddler barged over close to the line to score as the Dragons' forward pack continued to impress.

Josateki Masibalavu dove over in the corner for Macquarie before another Saddler try sealed the win for Mudgee.

A comfortable win in the end, Priest couldn't help but smile when talking about his team's effort.

"Take nothing away from Macquarie, they are a solid side and can turn a game around really quick if given the opportunity," he said.

"I thought we were pretty good right across the park.

"There are still areas we need to improve but it's still only early days and a lot of the boys are still trying to brush a few cobwebs off."

Macquarie's Billy Gilbert could be out for a good chunk of time after breaking his nose.

"We shuffled a heap of boys around, we lost Billy at half time," Kavanagh said.

"We lost 'Aka' (Ronayne) for 10 minutes, we were just very ill-disciplined."

MUDGEE DRAGONS 34 (Zac Saddler 2, Ethan Pegus, David West, Pacey Stockton, Camden Sutton tries; Clay Priest 4, Ethan Pegus conversions) defeated MACQUARIE RAIDERS 14 (Kane McDermott, Josateki Masibalavu, Alex Ronayne tries; Jason Boney conversion)