Coming off the back of a good win against Wellington Cowboys last week, 36-26, the Parkes Spacemen have been busy preparing for this weekend’s elimination semi final against Dubbo Cyms in Dubbo. 

Parkes Spacemen First Grade Captain Coach Chad Porter said, “Last week against Wellington we started strong and obviously we have to do the same thing with Dubbo Cyms. They are fit, we just need to match it with them, and if we can play like we did in the first 20 minutes of last weeks game, then that will help us win the game. 

“All the boys are keen and our game plan is to just get our structures right, get to where we need to be and play our type of footy. Then hopefully into the Grand Final, if we can knock Cyms over this weekend.”

The Spacemen have faced Dubbo Cyms twice this year already, as it stands each have won a game. “We have beaten Cyms at home once this year so we can definitely beat them,” said Chad.

Chad assures us that it will be all hands on deck this week, pending the fate of one player, everyone is fit and healthy and ready to go. The other elimination final match being played this weekend is Mudgee v Orange and the winner of that match, will play the winner from this weekend’s match Parkes v Dubbo, in the Grand Final.

Organise a car or a bus, load up with supporters and get across to Dubbo to cheer on the Spacemen this Sunday and help them across the line.

Parkes Spacemen faced Mudgee on 20th August in Mudgee. Club President, Tony Dwyer said, “For 65 – 75% of the game we were leading and looking good and then we got starved of the ball for the last 10-15 minutes, had a few penalties go against us, unlucky bounce of the ball and then all of a sudden they were back in it, we went for a short drop out, they got it back and only had to run five meters to score and the rest is history”. Parkes Spacemen play Wellington at home this Sunday 27th August.

Let’s get as many Magpies supporters as possible on Magpie Hill this Sunday at Pioneer Oval, Parkes, as our League Tag side and Under 18’s head into round two of finals. Can’t wait to see you all there to cheer these legends on!

Last Sunday four grades of footy were played at Spooner Oval Forbes, between Parkes and Forbes. Reserve Grade brought home the win for Parkes. 

Centre for Parkes, Bill Simpson said, “It was a good hit out, from both ends, a real physical game that was all played through the middle”.

Coach Jimmy Clyburn was proud of the boys efforts, saying, “It was a tough effort, we did well considering we had no bench for the whole game, the boys really dug in”.

Reserve grade now sit in fourth position and play St Pats in Bathurst this weekend.

The Parkes Marist JRLC U8s League Tag girls were excited to be joined at training on Tuesday evening, at North Parkes Oval, by the PMJRLC U14s White girls for a special training session. 

The U14s organised some peer mentoring/coaching for the U8s girls team. The 14’s were really excited to run this session. Holly Monkerude, the mother of Remi and Saige who both play in the U8s team said that both “the girls loved it”. The U14 girls should be highly commended on their efforts and the way they ran the training session, such a great example of clubmanship

 

Game times for Saturday 22nd July: Magpies v Parkes Blue at Parkes

Spicer Oval:
• 12:30pm U7s, U8s, & U8LT
• 1:30pm U7’s

Pioneer Oval:
• 9:50am U12s White
• 10:40am U10s
• 11:30am U14LT
• 12:30pm U12 v Black

 

Local rugby league star Elizabeth McGregor recently competed in the Australian Secondary Schools Rugby League Championships, and shares her experience:

I arrived in Redcliffe on 30th June, for the Australian Secondary Schools Rugby League Championships for under 18s girls and boys. I was playing for NSW Combined Catholic Colleges. 

We had three training sessions prior to heading up to Redcliffe in Sydney and continued to train throughout the week of the championships. On Friday we had a team training for about two hours to refresh our minds on our game plan, moves and defence.

On Saturday at 9am we had the opening ceremony for the championships before our team photo and three games for the day. They were only 20 minute games, since the games were short the first try was worth fivepoints and the rest were four plus no conversions to avoid ties. 

Our first game was against Victoria which we defended on our line most of the game. We came away with a 9-8 win. Our next game was against ACT which we won 17-4.Then NSW Combined high schools whichwere going to be our biggest competitionin our pool. We came away with a 5-8 winscoring our winning try in the last minute ofthe game. It was definitely the most excitinggame of the day. 

After all of our games we headed down to the lagoon to get in the freezing cold water for recovery. On Sunday we had training and recovery. 

On Monday we played the same three teams again. NSWCHS was first, we knew it was going to be a tough game and the result was 5-4 their way, scoring first gave them the one point win. Then ACT which we won 17-0. Then Victoria which we won 17-4. 

On Tuesday we had another video session, training, recovery and team bonding. Wednesday was meant to be semi finals but they were postponed due to water on the field. 

So on Thursday we were up against QLD from the other pool. They were the team to beat. In finals games went to 25 minute halves, points went back to normal and conversions were back in. We lead at half time 6-0. With a few questionable calls in thesecond half QLD crossed the line for threetries. They missed all conversions so whenwe came back and scored it was 12-10 theirway. Our kicker had been taken off the fieldso one of our front rowers had to kick closeto the sideline, as she striked it looked hopeful, but the ball just drifted left and missed,meaning we were out of the running for thegrand final.

I’m hoping to make NSW again next year to go back to the Australian Championships and give it another crack. But for now I’m just enjoying playing for Parkes Marist (17s) and Spacecats (opens) in league tag, working on my fitness and strength for the local tackle comp that should start in about September and training with the Roosters Tarsha Gale girls to hopefully play in that competition early next year.

By Elizabeth McGregor