THE PARKES Spacemen slammed on three tries in the opening 10 minutes of their 2022 season, before Bathurst St Pats hooker Hayden Bolam 'took the game by the horns' and led his side to a remarkable 30-20 victory at Pioneer Oval on Saturday afternoon.
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The Spacemen were up 16-0 with just nine minutes on the clock, and were invoking memories of the 2009 Parramatta Eels with their electric style of footy, but a dogged performance in the second half from St Pats saw them put on 24 unanswered points in a somewhat bewildering game of rugby league.
St Pats captain-coach Zac Merritt was a mixture of elation and relief after the game, and the backrower said even though his side was expecting Parkes to come out of the blocks quickly, he wasn't expecting it to be THAT quick.
"We spoke before the game about Parkes starting quick, I know from experience as a Forbes boy they often do and they did exactly that today. I knew we would be a little bit flat after the last week off, but not that flat!"
Star Spacies halfback Chad Porter had a hand in all three opening tries, laying on two superbly weighted chip kicks for Jacob Smede and new recruit Will Wardle to score from, before a long cut-out pass gave Smede an early double.
Wardle's try was particularly spectacular, with the powerfully-built forward flying high above a pack like Buddy Franklin to score and belying the usual skillset of a backrower, and captain-coach Jack Creith said his new teammate was as talented as they come.
"Will was so good, I was almost hanging back just watching him at times. I reckon he lied to us and was secretly a halfback until he was 14 or so...he put on some huge hits in defence, and was doing it all in attack," laughed Creith.
St Pats barely got their hands on the footy in the opening 20 minutes, but stout defense set up a try to prop Luke Single in the 25th minute, with prop Nick Booth and Bolam doing their best to will the side back into the contest.
Smede grabbed himself a first half hattrick after yet another beautiful cross-field chip kick by Porter, taking the score to 20-6 at half-time. Creith, Porter and Wardle put Parkes' intentions for the upcoming season on full display, with slick passing, offloads galore and kicking early in the count to good effect.
"The first half was brilliant, not just the attack, but the defence was awesome. A couple of times we turned the ball over, but within the next few plays one of the boys would make a big tackle and would force an error from St Pats," said Creith.
If Parkes were invoking memories of the Parramatta Eels circa 2009, St Pats were reminding us all of their grand final opponents that season - the Melbourne Storm (let's not go into the premiership winner of that year, shall we).
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Merritt said he had faith his side would comeback hard, despite the deficit on the scoreboard - and after 24 unanswered points it's safe to say they reaffirmed that faith.
Bolam in particularly was mesmerising with his passing and direct attack from dummy half; take him out of the St Pats side and you'd make a case for Parkes getting the win instead, such was his influence.
"I knew we had the points in us, though, we're really fit and I knew we could grint our way back into the game and that's what we did," Merritt said.
"At half time we spoke about our commitment; running a little harder, tackling a little harder - we didn't need to make any big plays or anything, it was just about commitment and the determination of really wanting to win.
"Having the experience of Haydo (Hayden Bolam) and Timmy (Tim Holman) was a big part of that, Haydo really took the game by the horns in the second half. He told me let's attack the middle cause they're gone, and that's what we did and we had them after that.
"I'm over the moon though, it was a big day for Pats, we won all five grades and it was a real good day; we spoke about building on last year and we've started the season really well as a whole," said Merritt.
The attack for Parkes was still there in the second half, but the defensive line was tired and couldn't get enough line speed to slow the momentum of St Pats. Creith said it was certainly a learning experience for him as a first-time captain-coach, and the entire team - who will relish the next two weeks off.
"It was probably a trial for us in many ways, with seven or eight of us playing our first game for the season. Everyone really put in in the first half and gassed up a bit, which in some ways is a good problem to have, though running out of subs (due to injuries to Sam Dwyer and Jordon Pope)" said Creith.
"It's gonna be a learning curve for me to not expend all my energy thinking about subs or about stuff before the game, and that probably consumed a bit of my time on the field...but I don't feel I did too much and we were still flying, so that's nice.
"The young boys making their debut like James Parsons, Cody Crips and Riley Scott were really impressive, and I'm just looking forward to a bit of a rest then building up 'til 80 minutes of unstoppable footy.
"St Pats got the two points on the ladder, but we the two points of experience," said the ever-impressive Creith.
St Pats will take on the might of Dubbo CYMS in Round 2 on April 24, while after a bye, Parkes will play Macquarie in Dubbo.
PARKES SPACEMEN 20 (Jacob Smede 3, Will Wardle tries; Chad Porter 2 goals) defeated by BATHURST ST PATS 30 (Luke Single 2, Blake Fitzpatrick, Caleb Wardman, Hayden Bolam, tries ; Hayden Bolam 4 goals)
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