A try for the Dragons’ Nathan Orr by the right corner post, with four minutes to go, saw the Panthers handed a 22-20 loss – the exact same score as the previous weekend’s major semi-final against Orange CYMS.

“A couple of little things didn’t go our way in the last five minutes but that’s footy. Two weeks in a row is hard to swallow, with an identical scoreline and both games lost in the last five minutes,” Panthers manager Danny Dwyer said.

“We’ve got a young side though and that’s the main ingredient for the future. They’ll have their success in grand finals down the track but this year it wasn’t meant to be.

“We can see there’s a promising future and the club has worked really hard to get to where we’ve got to.

“Mudgee have lost a couple of finals in the last couple of years so they deserve the opportunity to play in a grand final as well. That’s why it’s hard. Sometimes it doesn’t turn out the way you want it to be.”

Panthers got off to an exceptional start when Blake Lawson put Claude Gordon into space, scoring an unconverted try in the second minute.

That lead became 10-0 when Kade Barrow went over for the first of his two tries.

Dragons didn’t let the game get away from them. An offload put front rower Hamish Bryant in the clear, who proceeded to run 40 metres and score under the posts.

That was the way things would stay for the remaining 20 minutes of the half, though both sides had their opportunities close to their opponents’ try lines.

Panthers came out firing in the second half as they forced a Dragons goal line drop out just six minutes in and scored on the following set.

Jeremy Gordon produced an great offload to keep the ball spreading towards the left wing, eventually winding up in the hands of Barrow who gave his team a 14-6 lead.

Dragons then did the exact same thing as hooker Ben Thompson scored the set after his side forced a drop out.

With the Dragons back within two points the travelling supporters found their voices. Those cheers soon became roars when Mudgee’s Lee Hicks got on the end of a grubber to put his side ahead 18-14.

However, the back-and-forth nature of the match continued when Lawson latched onto a high kick to give his Panthers a 20-18 lead. 

Dragons brought the ball back up the other end of the field and had a chance to win the match when Panthers were ruled to have knocked on a bomb deep within their own half.

They didn’t waste their chance when Orr found the match winner.

The result gives the Dragons a grand final berth after missing out at the preliminary final stage over the two previous seasons.