Magpies knock-off ladder-topping Spacies juniors in ‘statement’ game for Kennedy’s crew | Photos

At the moment, the survey says no after the undefeated Group 11 league tag leaders accounted for the Forbes Magpies reasonably comfortably, 26-10 on Sunday.

Fullback Sally Dwyer posted a double and Hannah Kelly, Daisy Burns and India Draper all crossed the stripe – the latter’s a 90 metre special – to help kick-on after the Magpies had stuck with the red, white and blue for three-quarters of the contest.

Sunday’s win now sits Parkes (14 points) six points clear of its nearest opposition on the league tag ladder, with Westside, premiers Dubbo CYMS and last week’s opposition Forbes all on eight points.

In reserve grade, the Spacies came from behind to beat the Magpies 26-22, Jack Elliot posting a double in a game that also marked the return of club legend Epi Sadrodro.

That four-point win rockets the Spacemen into the Group 11 reserve grade top five, with four wins from seven games placing the Parkes boys in third.

Ask anyone at either club, there’s never any shortage of motivation heading into a Parkes and Forbes Group 11 derby, in any grade.

But, for Jason Kennedy, his Forbes Magpies under 18s team viewed Sunday’s top-of-the-table clash with the unbeaten Spacemen juniors as a chance to “play big”.

And play big they did.

Making a statement with the 32-14 victory, the Magpies surge to the top of the Group 11 ladder was as emphatic as it was entertaining.

Fullback-come-winger Ray Towney bagged a hat-trick in the seven-tries-to-three mauling of a Parkes side minus its best player, custodian Benji Glasheen.

His Forbes counterpart, Charlie Staines was well contained by the Spacies defence and spent 10 minutes in the sin bin during the first half after being pinged for a professional foul.

But the man advantage didn’t amount to much, as the visiting Magpies skipped to a 20-10 lead at the break before kicking on with three more tries in the second period, too.

“We were pretty keen for this game,” Kennedy said.

“We had it circled on the calendar and we were ready to come out and play big.”

Forbes started well, scoring off their first set via a clever cross-field kick Toby Hurford that landed essentially in the arms of an unmarked Towney out wide.

Parkes hit back through Cody Crisp and hooker Michael Murphy, but further Magpies tries to Jack Hartwig, Thomas Maguire and a Campbell Woolnough special right through the centre of the field right on half-time ensured the Spacemen’s joy was short-lived.

“I’ve played here plenty of times and when Forbes plays Parkes you know Parkes is going to come out ready to go, we had to match it and get over the top of it and I thought we did that with our defence, our pack was unbelievable,” Kennedy said.

Parkes trainer Todd Jayet said while no loss is ideal, a defeat in June is far from the end of the world.

But the simple errors the Spacies juniors conceded – twice the Parkes boys, wearing replica jerseys worn by the club’s premiership winning 1997 under 18s team, dropped the ball off the kicko-off – are of some concern.

“The boys came out slow today, we didn’t complete the sets and our drop ball, if you do that against a Forbes side they’ll make you pay.,” Jayet said. “We were pumped ... we just weren’t on today.”