Stars sin binned as Fishies hold off a physical Magpies outfit

The Fishies were narrowly too good in a match featuring two sin bins, winning 24-14 against their old rivals.

A rematch of the 2021 PMP grand final, Dubbo CYMS halfback Jordi Madden said everything about the match felt like a finals game.

"We trained all week and prepared that they were going to be a physical side," he said.

"That's how we wanted to play our footy, we wanted to get in the grind and we really did that today.

"It was really good, it was physical and tough footy. You've got to play through those tough periods and come out on top which we did."

The match couldn't have started better for the Magpies as Traie Merritt scored in the second minute of the game.

In his return from suspension, Jeremy Thurston levelled the score after scoring a wonderful individual try for Dubbo CYMS.

Soon, the defending premiers had more points, this time via Jack Quinn.

Leading 12-6, CYMS were completing their sets at a high rate but Forbes managed to hit back through Ben Maguire just before half-time.

Coming out of the break, both sides looked for an edge but things went a bit too far when an altercation between several players from each team kicked off.

As a result, Alex Bonham and Forbes' Nick Greenhalgh were sin binned.

Forbes opted to take the penalty goal and Merritt nailed the extra shot to give the Magpies the lead.

There remains some concern for Quinn after he left the field with an MCL injury in the 60^th minute.

Once both sin binned players returned, Thurston found space off a clever inside ball from Bonham once he returned from the sideline and cruised over to score his second try of the match.

A late try to Jack Allen put the finishing touches on the win for CYMS and Madden felt they still aren't at their best with the ball.

"I can't fault our defence especially today, they attacked our line for the first 20 minutes of that second half and we just showed up for each other," he said.

"We both went down to 12 men and we kept turning them away set after set which was positive. We've just got to fix our attack, it will come over the next couple of weeks with Claude (Gordon) coming back."

CYMS now sit third on the ladder and equal on points with the second-placed Parkes, much to Madden's surprise.

"I didn't even realise to be honest, I thought we were fourth or fifth," he said.

"That's where we want to be up the top, we are certainly heading the right way about it."

For Forbes, the loss does not reflect their season and how they've played, a thought process coach Cameron Greenhalgh agrees with.

"We had six or seven sets at the line in the second half and if we turned one or two of those into points then maybe we would have gotten a bit of momentum but they turned us away," he said.

"To come up with an error or be short a couple of times hurt us a little bit. They went down the other end and scored a try.

"The effort was there from us and I'm happy with that. We will be alright, the mood in the sheds was high.

"Result went our way today, if we won this week and last week we would be right up there."