by Murray Silby
A third-quarter fade out has cost NT Thunder dearly in its Round 9 NEAFL match against GWS in Darwin on Saturday night.
The Giants kicked 6.2 to the Thunder’s 0.2 in the premiership quarter to push its 10-point half-time lead out to 44 points at three-quarter-time.
GWS went on to win the match by 51 points, 14.12 (96) to 6.9 (45).
The fade out follows another the week before.
In Round 8, Sydney University kicked eight goals to Thunder’s one in the third term and in Round 6 against Southport, Thunder was heavily outscored in both the second and final terms.
The problem of Thunder’s inability to stop match-winning momentum is a problem occupying much of the time of coach Andrew Hodges.
That disappointment was compounded by the club celebrating the unveiling of Thunder’s 10-year commemorative jumper.
Emblazoned with the names of every player who has played for Thunder in its 10-year history, more than 220 of them, it was hoped that, and Patrick Heenan playing his 50th match for the club would spur the team on to a welcome victory.
“Really disappointing,” Hodges said. “We thought maybe we probably played one decent quarter for the night and the second half was really poor, so it’s not the result we wanted.
“We just didn’t work hard enough when we needed to. Our skill execution and decision making again let us down, and the opposition capitalised on that and scored with ease so, and it’s just another thing we need to get better at.
“We’re working hard at training on it and we just now need to show that hard work in games.”
Like the previous week against Sydney University, Thunder matched its opponent for most of the game apart from the third term, losing the first quarter by 15 points, winning the second by five and losing the last by seven.
The third quarter though, allowed the Giants to forge ahead by 34 points and broke the game open.
The GWS defence was able to smother any intention Thunder had of running and carrying the ball, and as the home side was starved of opportunities, the visitors transitioned quickly into attack.
Fed by two giants in the ruck, Dawson Simpson and Matthew Flynn, the GWS midfield controlled Thunder’s, despite brave efforts by Cameron Ilett and Joe Anderson.
“Both those guys worked hard all night,” Hodges said. “We thought Richard Tambling worked hard as well and Sam Dyke down back had a tough job on some players who were a fair bit taller than him and just provided a contest and helped us out back there.
“Other than those guys, we didn’t really have an even spread across the board, which we need every week and we just need more guys putting their hand up.”
Thunder’s normally dangerous forward line also struggled to get into the game with champion full forward Darren Ewing going goal-less by Lachlan Keeffe for one of the rare occasions in his career.
The loss leaves Thunder’s record at three wins and five losses and with road trips against Aspley, which defeated Brisbane on Saturday, and Canberra, which beat Redland in the next two rounds.
“Two tough games,” Hodges said. “Aspley and Canberra Demons are in really good form, so we need to really prepare well and go down and give it our best shot to get a couple of wins.”
SCORES
NT THUNDER: 1.2, 5.3, 5.7, 6.9 (45)
GWS GIANTS: 3.5, 6.7, 12.9, 14.12 (96)
GOALS: NT Thunder – Hugo Drogemuller 2, Patrick Heenan, Dion Munkara, Shannon Rioli, Adam Sambono.
GWS – Kieren Briggs 3, Liam Delahunty, James Peatling 2, Aiden Bonar, Brent Daniels, Sean Driscoll, Jeremy Finlayson, Rhys Pollock, Dawson Simpson, Zachary Sproule.
BEST: NT Thunder – Cameron Ilett, Joe Anderson, Richard Tambling, Sam Dyke, Dion Munkara, Jack Monigatti, Rodney Baird.
GWS – Dawson Simpson, Matthew Flynn, Nick Shipley, Kieren Briggs, Jeremy Finlayson, Zachary Sproule, Lachlan Keeffe.