by Murray Silby
If I may mix my metaphors, it was a landslide that came in the form of a swarm of Hornets.
Thunder followed up its brave 11-point defeat to ladder leader Southport last week by succumbing to a 79-point sting by the Aspley Hornets in NEAFL’s Round 7 this week.
Playing in good conditions at TIO Stadium on Saturday night, Thunder went down to the visitors 6.8 (44) to 19.9 (123).
It started poorly for Thunder and didn’t end much better with another slow start seeing Thunder slump to a heavy deficit by quarter time.
Aspley booted six goals to one in the term with livewire forward Wil Murphy getting two of his six goals for the match in the opening burst.
It wasn’t until the 26th-minute mark that Thunder was able to get a major on the board thanks to a Chris Williams snap.
The 32-point deficit at the first change gave Thunder plenty to do and three injuries in the second quarter to runners Dylan Barry, Abraham Ankers and Nicholas Yarran made the mountain even steeper to climb.
Ankers and Barry returned to the field, but Yarran was unable to take any further part in the game.
Even so, despite a series of turnovers, when moving from defence into attack in the first 15 minutes of the quarter, Thunder was able to balance the term with two goals apiece.
It was looking ugly, however, when the margin blew out to 43 points after 20 minutes, including two more Murphy goals.
Late majors to Shannon Rioli and Hugo Drogemuller brought the margin back to 32 points at the long break and Thunder seemingly in with a chance.
Aspley was quick to snuff any hope of that in the third quarter, however, with Murphy booting his fifth of the match within two minutes.
Another five would follow for the Hornets, with only Adam Tipungwuti able to kick a major for the home side, allowing Aspley’s lead to balloon to 57 points at the final break.
A further five goals to Aspley, including Murphy’s sixth, while holding Thunder to three, pushed the final margin out to the 79-point win.
Thunder coach Darren Reeves couldn’t hide his disappointment after the game, considering his side’s fine performance just seven days before.
“Bitterly disappointed, just on effort across the board,” he said. “I felt we made a step forward last week and we’ve taken a couple of giant steps backwards and that’s been a common theme for us. We put up a great effort one week and an ordinary effort the next. It’s not acceptable.
“I’ll take the blame for it and we’ll get to work tomorrow morning and try and fix it and come back next week.”
Reeves said his players just weren’t competitive when contesting for the ball.
“It starts around the contest. We got smashed around the contest and numbers drawn to the footy. We were exposed on the outside. They were well drilled,” Reeves admitted.
“It’s the old saying. You’ve probably got 14 or 15 blokes putting in a genuine effort and then nine or 10 blokes (who aren’t), and it’s not always the same (players), it’s just different times and unfortunately, we’ve got that a lot at the moment.”
The result could have been worse for Thunder if not for the sterling efforts of Daniel Weetra and Ben Rioli in defence, in particular, and Jack Monigatti in the ruck as well as across the backline.
It probably says quite a bit about Thunder’s season though, that its best players in recent weeks have been patrolling its defences.
NT THUNDER 1.1, 3.4, 4.5, 6.8 (44)
ASPLEY 6.4, 8.6, 14.7, 19.9 (123)
GOALS
NT Thunder – Shannon Rioli, Chris Williams 2, Hugo Drogemuller, Adam Tipungwuti.
Aspley – Wil Murphy 6, Jonathan Freeman 3, Blake Nelis 2, Connor Stackelberg 2, Jasper Craven, Wil Gowers, Lonnie Hampton, James Nelis, Matt Payne, Ben Warren.
BEST
NT Thunder – Ben Rioli, Darren Weetra, Jack Monigatti, Clint Gallio, Kieren Parnell, Hugo Drogemuller.
Aspley – Jonathan Giles, Jasper Craven, Wil Murphy, Jake Spencer, Thomas Templeton, Callum Carseldine.