Parkes will be without two key attacking players when they take on the hot Wellington Cowboys in the first game of the second round of the Group 11 rugby league competition in Parkes this Sunday.
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Dennis Moran will be missing for several weeks as he recovers from a persistent hamstring problem to ensure he is right for the end of season matches, while Evi Nioko has a nose/cheekbone injury and will also miss a couple of weeks.
Their loss will see Jake Dooley in the starting line-up in the halves, and Matt Clarke coming into the forwards.
Dooley has been really good this season and will keep things calm and composed.
Clarke brings a lot of toughness to the line-up and plays mistake-free football.
Jordon Pope will move up to the front row and should prove very solid up the middle.
Another notable change is the selection of Aporosa Ada on the wing.
Aporosa has had an excellent first half of the season in reserve grade, being the leading try scorer.
He is fast and skillful, will add some flair to the backline and is a very good finisher.
Spacemen coach, Patrick Rosser said the side was now four points behind the third and fourth placed sides and needed to start putting together a string of wins to be well placed at the back end of the season.
“We have to start this Sunday with Wellington,” he said. “They are winning games, and playing well.
“We have to be a lot better than what we showed last week.
“We didn’t play good quality, low risk footy for long periods.
“We were coming off a very good performance (against Narromine), and started well, completing our first five sets and were strong in defence.
“But we fell away and became a bit lazy, lacking that extra bit of intent in our defence. Macquarie just kept coming at us.
“We have massive room for improvement.
“Against the better teams, you can’t play well for 10 minutes and expect to win. You have to get into the grind, do the basic things well, build pressure.
“We didn’t do that for long periods.
“Defensively, it was also disappointing as we did not work hard enough as a unit, allowing Macquarie too many offloads and easy metres.”
Rosser said Parkes worked on a structured plan which works well.
“But we went away from that, from what works for us.
“That happens when you drop ball, have poor finishes to your sets and do no create pressure. When that doesn’t happen, things fall away and you tend to try high risk football and that can be dangerous.”
But he said on a positive note, while Parkes played ‘ordinary football’, they were still in the game most of the time.
“We were certainly not far away last week, but were terrible in patches.
“We were only beaten by one try. We don’t have to do much to match it with the top sides.
“It’s more about attitude, turning up each week.”
The team to play Wellington:
1. Sam Dwyer
2. Brandon Paige
3. Hayden Robinson
4. Cameron Standen
5. Aparosa Ada
6. Jake Dooley
7. Todd Barrow
8. Dave Masoe
9. Alex Prout (c)
10. Jordan Pope
11. Matty Clarke
12. Tino Ionatana
13. Epi Sadrodro
14. Ricky Newham
15. Adam Richards