There was no fairytale ending to Ethan Parry's breakthrough season.
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A brilliant extra-time try by Newtown Jets fullback Will Kennedy sunk Parry's Wentworthville Magpies in a scrappy but ultimately exciting Canterbury Cup grand final at Bankwest Stadium, Parramatta, on Sunday.
The Jets won 20-15 after it was 14-14 at full-time.
No 3 Parry - a former Oxley High student who made his NRL debut this season at Parramatta - was rarely sighted in attack.
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However, he produced two try-saving plays: helping to hold up Jets winger Tyrone Phillips over the tryline in the seventh minute, then getting a hand to an inside pass by Phillips to stop a try in the 44th minute.
Parry scored two tries in back-to-back games for the Eels this season, before being dropped to reserve grade when Michael Jennings returned from injury.
His Tamworth family watched him make his first-grade debut against Manly at Brookvale on July 21, and they were in the crowd on Sunday. Present were his father, Troy, his stepmother, Aleshia, and his siblings, Cody, Ty, Jenarli, Lacey and Jada, who did not attend the Manly match.
Troy was disappointed the Magpies - who finished the regular season in eighth spot - did not spin it wide very much, preferring instead to attack Newtown up the middle. "I was going crook about it the whole game," he said.
Despite the grand final disappointment, Troy said his 20-year-old son had a season to savour.
"He's had a good year," Troy said. "This is what he's put the effort in for, the time he's been down there. He made his [NRL] debut, got to a grand final in reserve grade. You can't ask for much more than that."
Troy is excited about what lays ahead for his son, who the Eels have developed over the past five years after he was scouted in 2014 and then relocated to Sydney.
"He's had a taste of first grade, so he's got the ambition now to cement his [NRL] spot," Troy said.
