The Spacemen were up 16-0 after just nine minutes of play but a dogged performance in the second half from St Pat's saw them mount a big resurgence in a somewhat bewildering game of rugby league.

St Pats captain-coach Zac Merritt was a mixture of elation and relief after the game, and the backrower said even though his side was expecting Parkes to come out of the blocks quickly, he was still blown away by that start.

Saints put on 24 unanswered points to take down Spacemen

"We spoke before the game about Parkes starting quick, I know from experience as a Forbes boy they often do and they did exactly that today. I knew we would be a little bit flat after the last week off, but not that flat."

Spacies halfback Chad Porter had a hand in all three opening tries, laying on two superbly weighted chip kicks for Jacob Smede and new recruit Will Wardle to score from, before a long cut-out pass gave Smede an early double.

St Pats barely got their hands on the footy in the opening 20 minutes, but stout defence set up a try to prop Luke Single in the 25th minute, with prop Nick Booth and hooker Hayden Bolam doing their best to will the side back into the contest.

Smede grabbed himself a first half hattrick after yet another beautiful cross-field chip kick by Porter, taking the score to 20-6 at half-time.

Merritt said he had faith his side would comeback hard, despite the deficit on the scoreboard - and after 24 unanswered points it's safe to say they reaffirmed that faith.

Bolam in particularly was mesmerising with his passing and direct attack from dummy half.

"At half time we spoke about our commitment; running a little harder, tackling a little harder - we didn't need to make any big plays or anything, it was just about commitment and the determination of really wanting to win," Merritt said.

"Having the experience of Haydo (Hayden Bolam) and Timmy (Tim Holman) was a big part of that. Haydo really took the game by the horns in the second half. He told me let's attack the middle cause they're gone, and that's what we did and we had them after that.

"I'm over the moon though, it was a big day for Pats, we won all five grades and it was a real good day; we spoke about building on last year and we've started the season really well as a whole," said Merritt.

The attack for Parkes was still there in the second half, but the defensive line was tired and couldn't get enough line speed to slow the momentum of St Pats. Creith said it was certainly a learning experience for him as a first-time captain-coach, and the entire team - who will relish the next two weeks off.

"It was probably a trial for us in many ways, with seven or eight of us playing our first game for the season. Everyone really put in in the first half and gassed up a bit, which in some ways is a good problem to have, though running out of subs (due to injuries to Sam Dwyer and Jordon Pope)" said Creith.

"It's gonna be a learning curve for me to not expend all my energy thinking about subs or about stuff before the game, and that probably consumed a bit of my time on the field...but I don't feel I did too much and we were still flying, so that's nice.

"The young boys making their debut like James Parsons, Cody Crips and Riley Scott were really impressive, and I'm just looking forward to a bit of a rest then building up til 80 minutes of unstoppable footy.

"St Pats got the two points on the ladder, but we the two points of experience," said the ever-impressive Creith.

St Pats will take on the might of Dubbo CYMS in Round two on April 24, while after a bye, Parkes will play Macquarie in Dubbo.

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