Four players were sent from the field within a 20 minute period of the second half, including Forbes’ Ben Robinson, while Dubbo Westside were without Brady Brooks, joint-captain-coach Claude Gordon and Warren Peachey all at once for about five minutes.

Forbes capitalised, showing signs of the flashy brilliance that saw them upset Dubbo CYMS in the 2016 grand-final, and they capitalised on Westside’s errors.

Gordon admitted his side needed to hold onto the ball more and tackle less against a “really good forward pack”.

“We start slow … and those big bodies, we’ve got to try and make them tackle as well,” he said.

“It seemed like in the first half, all we did was defend. When it finally comes down to us having the ball, the boys are too buggered from tackling … it’s just not on mate.”

Gordon was also critical of some of the refereeing decisions, calling Brooks’ sin-binning a game-changer.

“The touchies come in and call him for striking from underneath … you’ve got two touchies there from Forbes and – I know it’s bush footy and you struggle for numbers – but you can’t have it mate,” he said.

“There is a conflict of interest there. They’re from there, one bloke grew up playing for them … it changed the full game mate. Changed the game.

With my sin-binning, I wasn’t even talking to the ref. I was talking to the boys, just letting them know that we are Westside and we don’t get nothing so just shut our mouths, roll up our sleeves up and get the job done – not exactly in those words but then I ended up with 10 in the bin.

“When you’re down three players, look. I don’t know. I didn’t think our discipline was too bad today.”

The sin-binnings took away from an otherwise exciting affair, with flashes of brilliance from both sides.

Brayden Peachey turned the Magpies inside out with some fleet footwork to claim his try in the 46^th minute, while Corey Ashby, Darrell Kemp and Gordon’s captain-coach partner Matt Naden were also outstanding.

But the five-eighth tore his right bicep late in the piece; the possibly season-ending injury a “massive loss” for the Rabbitohs.

“It’s a massive loss,” Gordon said. “You can’t replace experience … Nado gets through a mountain of work in defence and attack but we’ll have to play around with the side.”

Magpies coach Cameron Greenhalgh was very pleased his side had started to play more attacking football.

“We pride ourselves on our defence,” he said. “It breeds enthusiasm and that’s given us a little bit of time with the footy to attack.

“It’s always tough travelling over to play Westside … we knew we were going to be in for a tough game.”

He dismissed any criticism of the refereeing, saying Westside were “probably their own worst enemy”.

“If they’re going to complain about every call that’s made, it’s not going to help their cause,” he said.

“It went both ways a little bit. They’ve probably just got to fix that area of their game a little bit and they’ll be competitive.”