By Murray Silby
Close to securing its sixth consecutive finals appearance, Aspley will provide some tough opposition when it travels to Darwin this weekend to take on NT Thunder in Round 17 of the NEAFL.
Sitting fifth on the NEAFL ladder, just inside the top six, the Hornets have plenty to play for and will take on a Thunder side that’s sitting second last.
Apart from winning the game, Thunder’s main goals are likely to focus on winning back some respect as a competitive unit and to give some talented youngsters a taste of NEAFL footy.
Speaking after last weekend’s brave loss to ladder leader Canberra by 21 points, Thunder coach Andrew Hodges said as much.
“We want to finish the season strongly,” he said. “We’re a pretty proud group of guys and they just want to finish really strongly and win back a bit of respect we probably lost in the first half of the year.
“That was a big part of tonight, earning back some respect and I think we went a long way to achieving that.”
Veteran full-forward Darren Ewing agreed. He said the level of effort put in by Thunder was pleasing, but it was disappointing that couldn’t be turned into a win.
“Yes, it was disappointing to lose, but I think it was a positive game for us to take into this week,” Ewing said.
“That was a big thing going into that game, we didn’t want teams to blow us away in a quarter so yeah, I thought our effort was sensational on the weekend. We just couldn’t finish the goals and finish it off.”
Ewing finished off six goals to take his season’s tally to 42 and push him into second place on the leader board behind Redland’s Matt Hammelman, who has 53.
But Ewing also booted three behinds, which on another day, he might have kicked.
“I kicked a few behinds. I don’t like missing goals so I was pretty happy with the game, but I would have liked to have kicked a bit straighter,” he said.
“It was a disappointing loss in the end. We had our chances to win. We missed a few goals and we had our chances to win and took a step forward with our performance and I thought we fought the game out well considering we had a few injuries during the game.”
Those injuries included concussions to first gamer Matt Green and youngster Coen Hutt.
Depending on their recovery, the pair will be among the mix for the Aspley game as Hodges has said he’s planning to give some younger players on the list more opportunities as the season moves towards its conclusion.
Others include Beau Schwarze, Michael Mummery and Malcolm Rosas.
“I love seeing the young blokes come through,” Ewing said. “Young Malcolm Rosas made all-Australian under 16s so I reckon he might play a few games at the end, but there’s a few young kids coming through like Matty Green and Michael Mummery.
“Hopefully they can play a few games and perform well and get drafted in November.”
One Thunder player who won’t be playing this weekend is Thunder’s Team of the Decade captain Cameron Ilett.
Few players have a better record or are more respected in football around the country, let alone in the NEAFL, than the former Thunder premiership captain.
He’s won six of the nine Thunder best and fairest awards that have been presented. Such has been his dominance, that the award has been named the Ilett Medal after he and brother Jarred, a former captain and CEO of the club.
Ilett was reported for rough conduct in the third quarter of the game against Canberra and suspended for two matches, but will serve one week after an early guilty plea.
It’s the first ever time he’s been suspended in his senior career across all competitions and divisions.
Ewing and Ilett are both foundation players with Thunder and great mates – apparently.
“He’s a bit of a thug,” Ewing joked as his mate’s expense. “I haven’t seen the video, but Cammy will take the week and he’ll get a couple of weeks off now with the bye and he’ll come out and play the last three games nice and fresh.”
NEAFL Round 17: NT Thunder v Aspley Hornets – 6:30pm Saturday 28 July, TIO Stadium, Darwin