Thunder hands Collingwood first loss – Round 14

11.08.18 19:53

By Murray Silby

A three goals to none final term has given NT Thunder a come-from-behind victory over ladder leader Collingwood in Round 14 of the VFL W.

The 10-point win, 5.8 (38) to 4.4 (28), at the famous Victoria Park handed the Magpies their first loss of the season and keeps Thunder’s hopes of securing the double chance for the finals alive.

The match opened with a finals-like atmosphere and an approach by both teams that could be best described as “willing”.

The Pies struck first after six minutes with a goal to key forward Stacey Livingstone, but Thunder hit back within a couple of minutes with Jordann Hickey finishing off some great attacking pressure by her team-mates, including Tayla Thorn, who delivered the ball to her with a slick handball.

The home side’s lead was pushed out to seven points by a goal to Ruby Schleicher at the 11-minute mark.

The remainder of the term was an arm wrestle though, with Thunder withstanding a huge amount of pressure from Collingwood and the quarter-time margin was a narrow seven points.

The Magpies’ pressure was maintained into the second quarter, but it was Thunder’s Angela Foley who managed to level the scores after six minutes by shooting truly on the run.

It took another 10 minutes for the next goal to be scored and it was the ladder leader, which took a big step towards breaking the game open with two goals in succession.

First Hilary Grubb kicked truly on the 15-minute mark, before Daisy Bateman followed up three minutes later.

The Bateman goal was an unlucky one for Thunder given defender Sharona Bishop was wrong-footed by an uncooperative ball that took a right angled turn to roll past her and through the big sticks to give the Magpies an 11-point lead at the long break.

Coming just before the half-time siren in a tight, high-pressure contest, the Bateman goal seemed to increase its value to double the six points and compound the feeling of bad luck for the visitors.

As the third quarter got underway Thunder wasn’t showing any signs of stewing over how the first half concluded and set about turning the screws and getting on top of the Magpies.

The visitors started to dominate possession and force their hosts into desperate defence deep into their half, but again it looked as though bad luck, or at least poor kicking for goal, might ruin those efforts.

On the six-minute mark a long-range Hickey shot faded to the left for a behind and there was a similar result for the Alice Springs star when she missed from on the run.

Then at the other end of the ground some desperate Thunder defence ensured the Magpies weren’t able to take advantage of the stray shots and could only manage a single behind for the quarter themselves.

The nine-point Collingwood lead at the final change meant the game was still up for grabs from either side.

Within two minutes of the final quarter getting underway it looked as though Hickey would be the one to do that for Thunder, but missed again, this time from another set shot.

Then, when a shot from Sue Nalder fell shot and was spectacularly marked by Thorn just a few metres out, it seemed as though Thunder was finally going to take control of the match, but she shanked the kick for another behind.

Finally, after 12 minutes, captain Foley capped off another brilliant game by kicking a goal off the ground in the goal square, but only after the ball bounced off a Collingwood defender desperately trying to save the six points.

Still trailing by a point after 16 minutes, the mercurial Machaelia Roberts put on a display of her football smarts by firstly roving a pack on half-forward perfectly only to lose the ball momentarily before regathering and kicking the goal that took Thunder into the lead by five points.

Collingwood’s attempt to answer saw another rolling shot from Bateman bounc the wrong way this time before the irrepressible Hickey got involved again.

This time, from a tight angle about 30 metres out and on the run, she got her radar on target to put the cherry on top of the icing and the cake.

Thunder coach Tim Weatherald said when his team was trailing at half-time he gave his players license to take risks and take the game on and it was satisfying the approach had paid off.

“At half-time we said we wanted to play attacking footy and not be so much about them,” he said. “The instructions at three-quarter-time again was take risks, kick across the ground and take on that switch more and I thought they executed really well.

“I think our pressure in the end finally got to them. I think we had 18 or 19 tackles in that last quarter and I think we just slowly wore them down with our ability to never give in and just keep coming and coming.

“We said at some stage we’re going to be able to break them and it took us until the last couple of minutes, but that never give in attitude, I guess, was the most pleasing thing.”

Weatherald believes beating the only previously unbeaten side in the competition two weeks out from the finals will send a message around the league that the NT side means business.

“Going into the finals series, we now know if there’s a tight game we know we can string it together and finish a game off and win and that’s probably the most pleasing thing today,” Weatherald said.

“We now know in those situations how finals will be and in the high pressure, we’re good enough to score if we need to.

“We said today was going to be like our first final. We knew it was going to be a high pressure game and we were able to challenge ourselves against the best team in the comp and see where we sit and I think we probably made a statement to the competition that we’re definitely going to be there right at the end of the season and all the other teams now know that even if we’re down we’re going to keep coming at you so hopefully they’re all a bit scared of us now.”

SCORES

Collingwood: 2.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4 (28)
NT Thunder: 1.0, 2.3, 2.6, 5.8 (38)

GOALS: NT Thunder – Jordann Hickey 2, Angela Foley, Anne Hatchard, Machaelia Roberts.
Collingwood – Daisy Bateman, Hilary Grubb, Stacey Livingstone, Ruby Schleicher.

BEST: NT Thunder – Jenna McCormick, Angela Foley, Ebony Marinoff, Jessica Sedunary, Jordann Hickey, Sarah Allan.
Collingwood – Steph Chiocci, Brittany Bonnici, Nicole Hildebrand, Stacey Livingstone, Daisy Bateman.