Great, that is, until the leader'’s popularity tanks and you suffer the backlash.

As deputy premier in July, the then NSW Nationals leader Troy Grant could hardly say no to Mike Baird when he decided to ban greyhound racing.

Then the premier lost courage in the face of a vocal community campaign and reversed the ban. But it was too late for Mr Grant: irreversible damage had been done to the Nationals brand and that of its leader.

Orange byelection voters drew on that damage, anger over council amalgamations and a new-found Trumpesque freedom to take baseball bats to elitist governments.

It was a unfortunate quirk of fate and timing for Mr Grant that this sequence of to-ing and fro-ing was followed by the byelection, where an angry throng was lying in wait to make their feelings known to the Nationals.

Given time (the next State election is in March, 2019) it’s more than possible the groundswell of fury over enforced council mergers would have simmered to a controllable boil.

Alas, Saturday’s result was an electoral pounding so great for the Nationals that Mr Grant had to resign before his party room came after him.

Ironically, before Mr Baird backflipped on greyhounds, the Premier had reminded voters they could toss him out if they didn't like his decisions.

In effect, when Mr Baird reversed the greyhound ban, he was sacrificing Mr Grant.

A former policeman, the now former Nationals leader and police minister from Dubbo also faced criticism over the Lindt cafe siege fallout.

Now Mr Grant has overseen the loss of a 71-29 per cent two-party preferred majority in Orange and the end of his party's tight hold on the seat since 1947.

Once rusted-on Nationals supporters have become increasingly sceptical about the party's appeasement of “city slicker” partners on issues such as gun control, greyhounds and forced council mergers.

Mr Grant said the party’s path to regain voters’ trust starts now, regardless of the outcome of the byelection re-count.

Here’s a tip: crafting and supporting policies based solely on the well-being of regional voters – even if that means distancing themselves from their Coalition partners – wouldn’t be the worst place to start.