A brave performance from the Dubbo Rhinos wasn't enough to get the win in their preliminary final against Parkes Boars on Saturday.
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The Boars travelled to Apex Oval for the New Holland Cup preliminary final and came away 37-33 win in an entertaining clash which featured four cards, three of those being red.
After his side lost Kaiden Hill early in the match, Doug Sandry was proud of the way the Rhinos played especially without one of their stars.
"There's not much you can say really, it's a disappointing way to finish the year," he said.
"We promised so much the whole season played some really good football, I think even today at times we played well.
"Once again it was our discipline which caught up with us.
"You can't play 72 minutes with 14 players against a massive backline like Parkes and expect that you are going to hold them out, it was incredibly gutsy."
Parkes captain Ben Ryan admitted he knew his side was in for a tough match.
"We came over knowing it was going to be a real challenge for the boys for 80 minutes," he said.
"You just can't afford to let anything go, you can't take the foot off the gas against these Dubbo boys.
"They are a class side, in open play and attack they can tear you apart."
Things started terribly for the Rhinos as Hill was red-carded just 8 minutes into the match leaving Dubbo with 14 men for the rest of the game.
Parkes eventually broke through the Dubbo defence to score the first try of the match with Tupou Vereti barging over, Jacob Hardie added the extras as the Boars led 7-0 after 12 minutes.
Just minutes after scoring, Vereti was yellow-carded and the Rhinos made his side pay as Lachie O'Malley scored the home side's first try of the day.
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Keiran Hill's goal kicking was brilliant as the centre nailed his first shot of the day to tie the scores up at 7-all.
The Rhinos would be the next side to score, this time through Nick Barton and with Hill again slotting the conversion the momentum began to change.
But Parkes held on and managed to score next with Toby Baigent crossing over out wide to reduce Dubbo's lead.
Vereti returned to the field and made an instant impact as he crossed for his second try of the afternoon.
A pair of late penalty goals to Hill got the Rhinos a slight lead at 20-17 as halftime was blown.
Both sides traded penalty goals coming out of halftime before Seremaia Tuinoda gave Parkes back the lead after scoring.
Vereti's try-scoring brilliance continued as he grabbed another try before Semi Rokodinono this time converted to give the Boars a 32-23 lead.
Hill's radar was on point in tough conditions as he once again slotted a penalty to get the Rhinos back within striking distance.
However, a brilliant line break and try to Rokodinono off the kick off changed things completed.
Nash Forgione and Soropepeli Soqe were both red-carded late in the match for throwing punches as Dale Smith scored with just minutes remaining, a try which was again converted.
But it was too little too late for the Rhinos as a last-ditch attempt to score fell through handing Parkes the win.
With his side now out of the competition, Sandry knows the Rhinos will come back bigger and better next year.
"We led five times during the match with 14 players, they showed incredible courage," he said.
"But at the end of the day it caught up with us and we were just exhausted by the end of the match.
"Congratulations to Parkes, we'll try and recover from that.
"There are a lot of areas we need to work on and the biggest one is discipline."
One positive from the match for the Rhinos is the experience their young core gained, something which Sandry believes will put them in good stead going forward.
"They kept coming, they are an incredibly gutsy side our boys and they don't give up," he said.
"When you've got young guys who were outstanding it is great but every player who took the field did a great job."
The Boars are no strangers to making grand finals after winning the last two competitions but Ryan admitted there were no plans to play in the decider earlier in the season.
"We didn't set any expectations for making the grand final at the start of the year," he said.
"We just wanted to take it week by week and build.
"There was a realisation towards the end of the season that it was potentially on for us.