And in the end, a stirring second half outing lifted Parkes to a 28-18 minor semi-final victory over Group 11 rivals Forbes to book a spot in next Sunday’s preliminary final.

Down by two points at the break, the Spacemen shot out to a 22-12 lead on the back of tries to Jordan Pope and young winger Joey Dwyer mid-way through the second half.

Both were beneficiaries of some stellar halves play from Chad Porter and Dennis Moran – the experienced pair guiding the visitors around Spooner Oval with aplomb all game.

And while Forbes hit back briefly through Jesse Wighton to inch within striking distance at 22-18, setting up a grandstand finish, it was all over when replacement pivot Alex Prout set up the match-winner after slicing through the Forbes defence inside the final two minutes and sending Sam Dwyer over to score under the posts.

“We had a quick play the ball and I saw space, I was playing lock at the time,” Prout said looking back at the final play of the game.

“Chaddy (Porter) hit me with a good ball and I got through … I just had to give it early and hope Sammy could do the rest.

“We haven’t won here for a while, it’s quite tough and they’ve got a strong home crowd.

“To their credit, they had a few injuries and dug deep and made it hard for us. It could have gone either way but we got a bit of ball at the right time and put them away.”

Really, Forbes had enough ball and field territory to do exactly the same and ensure their premiership defence remained in tact for at least another week.

But semi-finals are tend to be won by the team that captures the big moments. 

The Spacemen won all of those moments on Saturday afternoon in Forbes.

Either side of half-time the hands of young Magpies winger Jarrod Nicholson let him down, spilling the ball over the line on two occasions.

While returning backrower Ben Maguire, almost certainly playing on one leg after previously being ruled out for the season with an ACL injury, appeared to reach out to score in the second half, but referee Simon Hartas, on the spot, pulled him up for a knock-on.

Any one of those moments goes the way of the black and white and it’s Jake Grace’s side one win away from a grand final berth next weekend.

But, in reply, Parkes made the most of the limited opportunities they had and produced points just about every time they hit Forbes territory.

And that production was mainly thanks to the polish Porter and Moran put on the end of the Spacies’ attacking sets – Forbes wingers Nicholson and Hoswell will be having nightmares about the Parkes’ pair’s kicking.

“We were always in it but at the end of the day, we gave away too many errors and too many penalties,” Forbes captain-coach Jake Grace said.

The penalty count was 7-2 Parkes at the end of the first half, but finished up 7-6 to the visitors.

Earlier on, the Spacemen scored first through hooker Joss Cleal, Cameron Standen’s left boot adding the extras.

Forbes then went bang bang, five-eighth Mitch Burke diving on two kicks – the first from Matt Roylance and the second somewhat of a hail mary effort from Jarrod Tyack – to score and shoot the Magpies out to a 12-6 lead.

It looked to be the period that would kick the premiers into gear.

But just after the 30 minute mark, some second phase play on half-way gave Chad Porter some room to move, he sliced through, then drifted across field before producing a lovely inside ball for Jake Porter to crash over, making it 12-10 Forbes.

It was a play that would epitomise Parkes’ effort – every time they had the chance to score, the Spacies were good enough to come away with points.

They hit the ground running in the second half, shooting to that 10-point lead before the hosts threatened to storm home on the back of a depleted by still very effective pack.

But Prout’s game-breaker put to bed Forbes’ 2017 Group 11 campaign.

“Very disappointed … we didn’t play our best footy and we didn’t deserve to win. Parkes played better than us and that’s elimination footy,” Grace added.

Prout said his side was able to ware Forbes down and capatilise in the second 40 minutes.

It’s a tactic the Spacies will employ in next weekend’s preliminary final too.

“We’ll be there. We’ve got the side that can do it,” Prout said.

“Our boys at the back did a great job defusing kicks and their boys at the back made a few mistakes … our kicking game form Dennis and Chaddy was great too.”

The win reverses last year’s result when Forbes knocked Parkes out of the finals with a 32-26 elimination semi-final win in 2016.