The Giants’ comeback effort was cancelled out by two late goals to the Bushrangers Rebels, leading to a 10-15-75 to 8-11-59 loss.

Giants had come off a win over the Bushrangers Outlaws and were determined to keep up their winning ways against their cross-city rivals.

Strong moments came in patches for the giants, particularly during the third quarter where they outscored their opponents 28 to 14, but their inconsistency and inaccuracy proved their undoing.

“Our accuracy in front of goal was off, which was a little unusual for us. We kicked no goals and four behinds, but we were lucky. They kicked 1-6 so we could have been blown out of the water,” Giants coach Mark Kennedy said.

“We had a talk at half-time about what we needed to do to improve. The third and last quarters were really good for us but they picked up those two quick goals at the end. There had only been five points in it up until then.”

Both teams had the chance to take control of the match during the second quarter but their wayward kicking in front of goal left the half-time score 35 to 17 in the Rebels’ favour.

Kennedy said his side lacked the patience which took the club to their win over the Outlaws.

“I think we were just rushing,” he said.

“We thought we were in with a good chance to get ahead and when we started to think that way we weren’t making the right decisions.

“Aiden Macauley had a great game. He kicked three goals. Nath Belbin had a heap of touches and Jenko [Paul Jenkins] just busted open the midfield.

“James Kennedy took some great contested marks against Sebastian Matheson.”

Belbin had a mammoth game in defence with 14 tackles, plus a goal and a behind.

Jenkins, Frank Bright and Sam Sloan kicked the remaining goals.

Bathurst Giants remain inside the top four courtesy of the Bushrangers Outlaws beating the Dubbo Demons on Saturday.