Group 11 skipper Hayden Bolam concedes a short preparation stunted his side's usually blazing attacking flair during a stagnant second-half in Saturday's derby loss to Group 10.
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The red and blacks shot out of the blocks on home soil, Bolam leading the charge at Spooner Oval as Group 11 jumped out to an 8-0 lead thanks to early tries from Brock Naden and Alex Ronayne.
Despite the ominous start to the Western derby, Group 11 only managed one more try in the next 50 minutes.
Bolam and co watched on as Group 10 stormed back into the contest and eventually held on to claim a 22-14 win, doing so with just 16 players, too.
"I thought we started off well," Bolam said.
"They were pretty slow around the play-the-ball to start but they began to slow us down and they came back strong in the second half."
Group 11 had one hit-out on Friday night and Bolam said it was a relatively short one.
"It was tough to have one hit-out and then get the boys to gel, but I thought we played well," he added.
Parkes half Chad Porter was terrific for the hosts and his one-on-one defence was excellent marking up opposite Oberon wrecking ball Abel Lefaoseu.
While Sam Coe's second-half try was somewhat of a highlight, the Macquarie winger latching on to a Matt Gidley-like flick pass from centre Bailey Hartwig to cross for Group 11's only second-half try.
The eight-point loss is Group 11's second straight defeat to Group 10 following last season's 40-28 result at Bathurst.