Peter McDonald Premiership 2023: Dubbo CYMS defeated Parkes in preliminary final

The Fishies were ruthless at times across Apex Oval, 38-20 to book their spot in the grand final against Mudgee.

Following the match, CYMS centre Tom Hughes said the group are relieved to get back into the final game of the season.

"It was a tough win, we did what we wanted to in the first 40 or 50 minutes of that game," he said.

"We wanted to kick long and turn them around, that paid dividends towards the end.

"They are a bit bigger than us so we just wanted to turn them around."

For Parkes and captain-coach Chad Porter, their season has come to an end.

But the Spacies star is still taking some positives out of their performance on Sunday.

"CYMS were just too good for us today," he said.

"I thought they played really well, we were a bit unlucky but we'll learn from that and hopefully it can lead into next year."

Things couldn't have started off better for the Spacemen, as favourite son Sam Dwyer crossed to score in the first two minutes of the match.

Parkes looked determined to ambush CYMS at home but Alex Bonham had other ideas, kicking a 40/20 which changed the momentum of the match.

Bonham's kick gave CYMS plenty of attacking opportunity and Mitch Cleary went through to score next before Jarryn Powyer followed suit minutes later.

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Tries to Claude Gordon, Jeremy Thurston and Powyer once again had CYMS in the box seat leading 28-6 before Dwyer scored his second of the afternoon just before half time.

Trailing 28-10, Parkes needed to come out of the break firing but Thurston would spoil the party, scoring another try.

With about 30 minutes remaining in the game, Gordon left the felt with a cork in his leg and didn't return.

"He's alright, it was just a cork when he got hit there," CYMS coach Shawn Townsend said of Gordon.

"He was struggling a bit at half time and we just decided to pull the trigger on him there.

"He probably could've stayed on there if we needed him too. We had plans of getting 'Bono' (Bonham) and Jarryn (Powyer) off a bit earlier too."

However, CYMS kept rolling on as Jaymn Cleary scored following a Jordi Madden break.

To Parkes' credit, they stuck at it in the heat with Takitau Mapapalangi and Dwyer both scoring tries late in the match.

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