Defending premiers NT Thunder were knocked out of finals contention on the weekend against their old rivals in the Aspley Hornets at Graham Road.
ASPLEY: 5.0 9.4 12.9 16.14 (110)
NT THUNDER: 3.6 9.8 10.10 13.11 (89)
GOALS
Aspley: J. Nelis 2, G. Grose 2, D. Bevan 2, J. Ferron 2, N. Jackson, J. Allen, R. Toye, J. Ainsworth, H. Joyce, E. Mallan, C. Stevenson, J. Turner.
NT Thunder: L. Patrick 3, J. Cooper 2, C. Ilett 2, D. Lewis 2, R. Tambling, L. Bath, B. Rioli, D. Ewing.
BEST
Aspley: R. Toye, H. Joyce, J. Ives, M. Hutchinson, D. Henderson, D. Lawrence.
Thunder: R. Clarke, L. Patrick, J. Beugelaar, R. Tambling, C. Ilett.
A flowing contest in the first half turned into a tight wrestle in the third before Aspley capitalized on Thunders errors to take the win 16.14 (110) to 13.11 (89) and advance to the Semi-Finals.
Last year’s Grand Finalists met in the blockbuster elimination final with a place in the Semi-Finals on offer. The final marked the fourth occasion the two heavyweights had met for the season and promised to be another hard-fought contest.
High intensity and hard tackling pressure from both sides was evident early as both teams tried to take control of the game. First blood came from Liam Patrick when he loaded up from 50 to open the scoring account for Thunder. The Hornets sharp-shooting on goal had them in front by six points in the first break before Luke Bath got Thunder moving with a major to get back in front.
The tight contest was locked up in half-time with Thunder able to bag six goals to four and lead by just four points. Shots on goal went south for Thunder when an arm-wrestle bogged down play in the third with neither team able to find momentum, kicking three majors to five points. Two mistakes cost the NT side two goals, something Head Coach Xavier Clarke picked up on.
“Certainly missed opportunities and turnovers probably cost us the match, with Aspley scoring a lot of goals through our mistakes,’’ Clarke said.
“Twice in the third quarter when we kicked backwards and fumbled, they ran in to score goals and it was not a good look.’’
Key forward Darren Ewing – who was kept to just one goal for the day – was able to create some breathing room with a goal, which was followed up by a huge 80 metre bomb from the electric Ben Rioli.
Aspley’s Nick Jackson was the man to put the Hornets back in front ten minutes into the final quarter with a kick from 50 out. The home side opened up a 19-point advantage before red-time, some hope for Thunder came with another goal from Liam Patrick but it came too late as the Hornets Cameron Stevenson kicked the sealer in the 27th-minute.
Xavier Clarke re-iterated that it was the small mistakes that hurt Thunder throughout the match.
“Once again, it was the little things that hurt us, a bit of the fumbles, not punching from behind, not being aggressive in the contests, things in finals footy if you’re not doing them every time, they’re going to hurt you.’’
With Thunder’s 2016 NEAFL season over, Clarke looks ahead at the next step as head coach.
“What we’ve got to do is regroup and start planning for next year as soon as we can,” he said.
“That means a full review of the season where we’ll wrap it all up and look at how things panned out.’’
By Levi Dobson