In one of the most dramatic Group 11 matches at Dubbo in recent times, the Narromine Jets came from 20 points down to draw with Westside 38-38.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Early in the second half Westside were up 32-12 at No. 1 Oval but Narromine, thanks largely to an eight-point penalty try, got the scores back level and then had a chance to win it.
Right on full-time Westside gave away a penalty and Mick Burns had a shot at goal from 48m out, just right of the posts.
But his attempt was waved away to the right and the points were shared.
After giving away a number of penalties and committing a stack of errors in the second half, Westside captain Shane Konz labelled the way his side let the game get away as "embarrassing".
"Very disappointing, the whole discipline thing we've worked on went out the window," he said.
"I can't put a finger on it but it was quite embarrassing to be involved in that when everyone is talking about how Westside is a new team and we came up with that sort of rubbish today."
One of the most controversial decisions came during the second half when an apparent swinging arm from Josh Merritt behind the play resulted in a penalty to Narromine.
Jets fans called for Merritt to be sin-binned or sent off and Jets coach Luke Harding echoed those thoughts, saying he was hopeful the incident would be looked at in the coming days.
"With the refereeing, it shouldn't have been that way anyway," Harding said of his team coming back from 20 points down.
"But that's just the way Group 11 is and hopefully it can be sorted out during the week and it will get cited and we can move on and the game will be better off in weeks to come without things like that happening."
"But Westside are a class outfit and for us to come back and have a draw, I'm pretty happy with that."
Narromine opened the scoring when teenage halfback Isaac Thompson took an intercept and raced 90m.
Dale Hutchinson scored Narromine's second in between a classy double from Merritt before the Westside five-eighth put Justin Shillingsworth over to make it 16-12 to the Rabbitohs.
A try to Kieran Hill and a runaway effort from Quentin Dickinson put the Rabbitohs up 28-12 at the break and that lead was extended when Dickinson got his second early in the second stanza.
But then things fell away for the Rabbitohs and the Jets scored two converted tries through Mick Clarke, who had earlier been sin-binned for back-chat, and Blake Richardson.
A try to Konz seemed to settle things for Westside but when Thompson was hit late by Cory Ashby when scoring inside the final ten minutes a penalty try was given.
Burns kicked the conversion and the penalty to level it up and that was how it stayed.
"It's two points we should have had in the bank but now we share it so it's very disappointing," Konz said.
"It's a game we were looking forward to because we've matched it with the three top teams and then to dish out what we did today was not the Westside of 2015."
DUBBO WESTSIDE 38 (Quentin Dickinson 2, Josh Merritt 2, Justin Shillingsworth, Kieran Hill, Shane Konz tries; Merritt 5 goals) drew with
NARROMINE JETS 38 (Isaac Thompson 2, Dale Hutchinson, Shaun Gordon, Mick Clarke, Blake Richardson; Burns 7 goals)