Parkes Juniors lost a golden opportunity to clinch a finals berth when they drew 26-all with Narromine last Sunday.
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Parkes led 16/0 and later 20/10 only to allow the Jets to share the points in a pulsating encounter.
The outcome leaves fifth place Parkes with a 26 points advantage over sixth placed Narromine with one round remaining.
Parkes need to produce the goods against third placed Macquarie next Sunday and trust that Westside will beat Narromine.
That scenario should never have happened with Parkes dominating Sunday’s contest only to be undone by silly errors at critical stages.
Parkes dominated the first quarter of the contest and three good tries suggested all was well for a semi-final berth.
An Aubrey Milson break put Tyrell Charters over for the fist try after eight minutes, followed by good tries to hooker Joe Press from dummy half and then to a rampaging Ethan McKellar.
Ahead 16/0 and appearing in complete control, the young Parkes side conceded two soft tries to their enthusiastic opponents for 16/10 at the break.
Despite well chosen adjectives from their coaching group, Parkes struggled when play resumed as the intensity increased.
Against the run of play, a superbly judged Baedon Dwyer kick produced a brilliant try in the Corner Boys cauldron for promising winger Ben Cusack.
Ahead 20/10, the Spacemen appeared to relax and two Jets tries within three minutes levelled the scores at 20/20.
Again Parkes responded through Cooper Burns to lead 26/20 but a Jets intercept try four minutes from time salvaged a draw.
In the end, each side scored five tries and few would argue that a draw was not a fair result.
Best for Parkes were Press, McKellar, Lewis Goodsall, Tanks and the ever improving Cusack.
Parkes 26 (T. Charters, B. Cusack, C. Burns, J. Press, E. McKellar tries, B. Dwyer 3 goals) drew with Narromine 26 (A. Williams 2, K. Sheedy, C. Anning, R. Richardson tries, J. Healey 2, D. Anning goals).
Referee Ray O’Brien.