By Murray Silby

NT Thunder has repeated its first round domination of the VFL W’s reigning premier Darebin with an outstanding 40-point victory in Round 10 on Saturday, 7.8 (50) to 1.4 (10).

Playing the Falcons on their home ground at Preston City Oval for the second time this season, Thunder enjoyed a great start to the game, holding Darebin goalless in the first quarter.

In Round 1, Thunder had restricted the Falcons to just the one major in the opening term and went on to record a 54-point win in the club’s first ever VFL W match.

This time around Thunder held Darebin goalless for three quarters.

The visitors, while not scoring as freely as their Round 1 win when they kicked five goals in the opening term, still dominated on the scoreboard, kicking three majors in the first quarter.

Jordann Hickey opened the scoring in the seventh minute with Jessica Sedunary following a couple of minutes later and Abbey Holmes kicked a late one on debut to hand Thunder a 20-point quarter-time lead.

Holmes played for the Adelaide Crows in their first two AFLW seasons and announced her arrival in the VFL W competition with a goal in each of the four quarters against Darebin.

She’s acknowledged as being the first woman in the nation to have kicked 100 goals in a recognised competition season.

She achieved the feat playing for Waratah in the NTFL in 2014 and her goal-kicking capabilities were on full display against the Falcons.

Holmes and Jasmyn Hewett kicked Thunder’s two goals in the second term with Thunder extending its lead to 33 points by half-time.

Darebin closed down Thunder’s scoring opportunities in the third quarter with only the one major being added to the scoreboard and that was also to Holmes.

The Falcons managed to score their first goal in the final quarter through Nikola Deiter in the 10th minute, but only after Holmes had kicked her fourth for the match after five minutes.

The win consolidates Thunder in the top three on the ladder and leaves it well positioned for its final five games of the season, with two of those against fellow top-three sides Collingwood and Hawthorn.

Coach Tim Weatherald was pleased with his side’s follow up performance to its 65-point victory over Geelong last week.

“I thought Darebin definitely weren’t weak,” he said. “They pushed us today and it was important to back up last week’s win and I thought we did that today. I’m really pleased.

“It would have been nice to kick a few more goals. I think we probably missed a few opportunities, but in general we backed up our good form last week and played another really disciplined game.”

Weatherald said Darebin’s line-up had improved since Round 1 and the scoreline didn’t reflect the fight it put up.

“They were a much better side and we knew it was going to be a really tough game and I thought our pressure again, which is what we always base our game around, was brilliant the whole game,” he said.

“Our undersized defenders played a great role and to keep any team to no goals at three-quarter-time and one for the match was a really big positive for us.”

He said another positive was the injection of Holmes’ goal-kicking for the first time this season.

“We rotated our forwards around a bit. She didn’t play a full game. It was her first game back after a knee issue earlier in the year and we played her through that forward line today,” Weatherald said.

“She presented really well, dropped a few marks, could have quite easily kicked more than four, but just showed she knows where the goals are and had a great first-up game.”

Thunder’s best players were wingers Justine Mules and Katie Streader, with Courtney Cramey putting in a strong showing in defence.

Captain Angela Foley on the ball was another stand out and Marijana Rajcic up forward was involved in plenty of the play.

Adelaide Crow and former Darebin premiership player Ebony Marinoff also proved a worthwhile addition, but Weatherald said his side’s strength is how players from across the whole squad contribute during games.

“When you look through the top 10 stats leaders in the competition we’ve hardly got a player in there. We have such good spread within our team,” he explained.

“Picking best players and stats we’re generally pretty even and I think that’s why we’re a good team because we share the load pretty well.”

SCORES

Darebin: 0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 1.4 (10)
NT Thunder 3.2, 5.4, 6.6, 7.8 (50)

GOALS:

Darebin – Nikola Deiter.
NT Thunder – Abbey Holmes 4, Jasmyn Hewett, Jordann Hickey, Jessica Sedunary.

BEST:

NT Thunder – Justine Mules, Katie Streader, Courtney Cramey, Angela Foley, Marijana Rajcic, Abbey Holmes.