After four straight games at home to start the season the Spacemen got the job done on the road on Sunday, flying out of the gates and blowing the Narromine Jets off the park before running out 40-16 victors at Cale Oval.

Following the retirement of Dennis Moran, the departure of Sam Dwyer and Brendan Tago and a quiet off-season many were tipping the Spacemen to battle in 2018, but the side has done exactly what Prout wanted up to this point.

“I’m very happy and we’re pretty lucky to be four and one so I can’t complain about that but we’ve got a tough run home in the second round with a lot of away games so we’ll see how we go there,” he said, before speaking about Sunday’s win.

“We had a couple of injuries and a couple of shift workers away so we had three or four under 18s and a couple of reserve graders back up so that was pleasing and I was proud of the effort.

“But there’s still plenty to work on.”

Prout said there was no plan to target the edges of the winless Narromine Jets, who were without captain-coach Wes Middleton due to a knee injury, but that’s what the Spacemen did early to great effect.

A Prout break led to monstrous prop Lewis Dwyer going over on seven minutes while some Nelson Daplan brilliance put Joey Dwyer in before the Fijian centre scored himself to set up an 18-0 lead after 13 minutes. The Jets were shell-shocked after being blown away early but they soon got into the game. 

The hosts hit back in style when an outstanding Travis Lowe cut out ball put winger Kalolo Uele over but the joy was short-lived as Parkes crossed twice in five minutes to set up a 30-6 half time lead.

The second half failed to hit any great heights as the Jets struggled with errors and ill-discipline while Parkes controlled proceedings but also struggled to complete all their sets.

The Jets won the second half, 12-10, scoring through centre Luke Mack and five-eighth Lowe, much to the pride of Middleton.

The captain-coach’s absence robbed the Jets of much direction and leadership but he was adamant there’s no need at all to panic about his side’s results. In fact, the experienced leader only had positive things to say after the game.

“For a lot of people everything is about winning but today, watching from the sideline, the score doesn’t reflect the improvement and effort we’re making,” he said.

“We’ve come so far since the start of pre-season and I’m actually excited for the boys and we’ve got two games left in round one and we’re focused on continually making improvements and we’re almost there.

“Some teams can gel straight away but we’ve had all these new blokes coming into the side and they’ve had to get used to the structure.”

For Prout, the performance of Daplan and some of the less experienced members of his squad was pleasing but he is determined to make his side better in the coming weeks.

The second half was from ideal as Parkes battled to cross the line while the Spacemen also, in a potentially massive blow, lost fullback Brandon Paige to a hamstring injury.

The Spacemen have a testing few weeks ahead with a clash with Westside at Dubbo followed by the always-intense derby clash with Forbes.

“We try and win the ruck and we do have good edge players and they were able to capitalise today,” Prout said, before speaking about what needs to improve.

“Our completion. All year it’s been pretty ordinary and we seem to have to defend more than we should, which takes the energy out of us.”

Reserve Grade: Dubbo CYMS 40 (Viliame Turuva 4, Jackson Bonham-Phair, Adrian Suber, Nick Wilson, Kaide Rapley tries; Nick Karydis 4 goals) def Dubbo Westside 10 (Matt Gibbs, Charles Trindall tries; Dean Lake goal); Nyngan Tigers 24 (Dean Woods 2, Brad Toole, Eliki Ledua tries; Matt Sheather 4 goals) def Dubbo Macquarie 16 (Hayden Chapman, Sam Mcdermott, Kye Donnelly tries; Craig McLean, Hayden Chapman goals); Forbes Magpies 22 (Pat Murphy 2, Henry Willis, Tim Dukes tries; Kurt Mylecharane 3 goals) def Wellington Cowboys 14 (Trent Forrest, William Allen, Daniel Ah-See tries; Norm West goal); Narromine Jets 24 def Parkes 22.

Under 18s: Dubbo CYMS 74 (Aiden Lake 3, Harry Blake 2, Sully Haycock 2, Tobias Dries 2, Sam Thompson 2, Zarrin Galea, Colby Peckham, Ken Johnson tries; Jordi Madden 7, Harry Blake 2 goals) def Westside Rabbitohs 6 (Brendan Coffey try; Troydon Dixon goal); Dubbo Macquarie 24 (Kyjuan Crawford, Ben Cook, Clayton Daley, Brodie Ford, Nick Tighe tries; Kyjuan Crawford, Calub Cook goals) def Nyngan Tigers 8 (Colin Piper, Kurt Terry tries); Forbes Magpies 26 (Thomas Toohey 2, Thomas Phillips, Toby Hurford, Sean Towney tries; Thomas Toohey 3 goals) def Wellington 16 (James Stanley, Tim Boney-Stewart, Tristtan Thompson tries; Will Allen 2 goals); Parkes 50 def Narromine Jets 0.

League Tag: Dubbo Macquarie 28 (Jasmine Daley 2, Dymphna Smith, Kyra Sutcliffe, Cailin O’Connor, Kiara Singh tries; Dymphna Smith 2 goals) def Nyngan Tigers 0; Forbes Magpies 18 (Courtney Hodge 2, Emma Reid, Joelene Pawson tries; Elysse Girot-Serplet goal) def Wellington Cowboys 6 (Jessican Finn try; Brittany Naden goal); Parkes Spacecats 32 (India Draper 2, Hannah Kelly, Sally Dwyer, Daisy Burns, Ashleigh Ward tries; Tyannua Goolagong 2, Lauren Chester 2 goals) def Narromine Jets 0; Dubbo CYMS 12 (Taneka Todhunter, Nicole Grose tries; Kaitlyn Mason 2 goals) def Westside Rabbitohs 10 (Brigette Fernando, Lucille Mcguinness tries; Tarlee Roberts goal).