by Murray Silby
NT Thunder has gone down in brave fashion to reigning premier and 2019 contender Southport by just 15 points at Fankhauser Reserve in the NEAFL’s Round 13 on Saturday, 7.15 (57) to 6.6 (42).
Thunder may have only held the lead for a matter of minutes in the first quarter, but it’s a game the club can be proud of, given its struggles this season.
In conditions more akin to a Top End Wet than Gold Coast’s sunny reputation, it was always going to be a hard slog for both teams.
The first term saw just the three goals kicked between the two teams, with Trent Stubbs kicking the first for the Sharks after a couple of minutes, followed by Kieran Delahunty for Thunder a few minutes later.
Southport’s Josh Williams kicked the third and last goal of the term to give the Sharks an eight-point lead at the first break in what was by no means a goal-fest.
But with much of the quarter played in the pouring rain, the tone of the game was already set as a tight, physical contest requiring plenty of second and third efforts.
It didn’t take the home side long to get on the scoreboard in the second quarter with Andrew Boston snapping truly after four minutes.
Thunder youngster Beau O’Connell wasn’t far behind though, taking advantage of a free kick directly in front inside six minutes.
Jack Mentha’s pair for the Sharks were split by Dylan Barry’s first, a great goal on the run that brought the visitors some reward for withstanding several minutes of sustained attack by the Sharks.
Defying the conditions, Thunder small man Jess Budarick also defied gravity to take a speccy where speccies are best taken – on the grandstand wing to give the match a rare aerial highlight.
But given the nature of the game, the ball spent plenty of time on the ground and in a state of contest, and as time went on the occasional minor physical disagreement developed, including as the players were leaving the ground for half-time.
By that stage, the Sharks had managed to extend their lead to 17 points.
Each team managed two goals apiece in the third quarter, one each to Barry and Nigel Lockyer for Thunder, while Mitch Johnson and Matt Doran kicked goals for the Sharks.
Southport was able to push its lead out by a further three points to 20 though thanks to it also kicking five behinds for the term.
In the conditions, that left a difficult task for Thunder if it was to record a massive upset, but under a huge amount of pressure from the 2018 premiers, it did its best to do so.
Unfortunately, however, the goals just wouldn’t come. It wasn’t until the 28th minute that either side was able to score a major and when it came, it was Thunder backman Ben Rioli who made the most of a free kick and 50-metre penalty to slot one through.
That was the one and only goal of the term and left the visitors still searching for their second win of the season, but coach Darren Reeves can see progress in the loss.
“Absolutely. We’ve got a lot of young kids in our side at the moment. We’ve got a number of injuries. We’ve spoken about that so we don’t need to go down that track, but I’m just proud of how we came and right from the start of the day, we spoke about how we’re not worried about the scoreboard, it’s just about being able to bring great intensity and great effort for four quarters,” Reeves said.
“We’re going to make some mistakes, but let’s just stick together as a group here and keep building, because I feel like, I know we’ve had some ordinary quarters over the last five or six weeks, but we feel like we’ve been pretty consistent with the footy over that period, apart from those ordinary quarters.”
Reeves said he couldn’t be prouder of how his backline troops performed against sustained attacks by the Sharks.
Undersized key defender Daniel Weetra was everywhere, gathering 26 disposals along the way, including 22 kicks, four handballs and he laid four tackles.
Alongside him, newly nominated NEAFL rising star Kieren Parnell with 27 disposals (19 kicks and eight handballs) and Rioli (22 – 19, 3) were stoic to say the least and heroic at best.
“They were sensational,” Reeves said. “They were obviously trying conditions. There was water sitting all over the ground and very, very wet, just from rain they’d had in the morning and over the last couple of days.
“But you’d go a long way to see a better game than what Daniel Weetra played today. He was phenomenal, Kieren Parnell was phenomenal. Nigel Lockyer was excellent in the backline there and then we threw him forward to try and manufacture something and he was excellent there. Kieren Delahunty was really good when he went back. Ben Rioli did what he does. Our back six was excellent.”
Another to lead the charge, as he usually does, was captain Abraham Ankers, who collected a game-high 32 disposals (23 kicks and nine handballs), and heaped pressure on Southport’s ball carriers with nine tackles.
“Abe Ankers was incredible,” Reeves added. “He was under an injury cloud right up until the start of the game. He’d had some concussion issues during the week. We were really mindful of it and we just needed to make sure he was 100 per cent confident in himself and the doctors were confident in him so considering that I thought he was outstanding as well.”
Reeves says, although a loss, Round 13, 2019, can be one of those games Thunder draws on as it continues to build the winning culture it craves.
“Absolutely. Outside of our second round game against Sydney Uni when we got toweled up in the game, our away games have been pretty solid,” he said.
“Our away games this year have been super positive and that was one of the things I challenged the group at the camp at the start of the year, the image of us was that we pick and choose when we wanted to turn up and particularly when we played away, that was the perception when we played away.
“I challenged them around that from some comments I got from people involved in the NEAFL so pleasingly we’ve been able to go away and bring great effort when we’ve played away, but that hasn’t transferred into form at home for whatever reason, but that will come.
“We need to turn up no matter what the conditions, where we’re playing, what our circumstances are and be really resilient and we’re seeing a bit of that so it’s really pleasing.
“In these conditions on a really tough day, I’m really pleased our boys won the last quarter. Our boys, again, at three-quarter-time we stressed, forget about the scoreboard, just keep giving this effort, keep doing your job, get your head over the ball when it’s your turn, get in defending, just stuff we’ve been talking about for a long time,” Reeves said.
SOUTHPORT 2.4, 5.8, 7.13, 7.15 (57)
NT THUNDER 1.2, 3.3, 5.5, 6.6 (42)
GOALS: Southport – Jack Mentha 2, Andrew Boston, Matt Doran, Mitch Johnson, Trent Stubbs, Josh Williams.
NT Thunder – Dylan Barry 2, Kieran Delahunty, Nigel Lockyer, Beau O’Connell, Ben Rioli.
BEST: Southport – Andrew Boston, Josh Williams, Ryan Davis, Jamison Shea, Dylan Fyfe, Jack Mentha.
NT Thunder – Daniel Weetra, Abraham Ankers, Kieren Parnell, Nathaniel Paredes, Joel Stevens, Brodie Carroll.