By Murray Silby

Aspley has paced itself to a comfortable 52-point victory over NT Thunder in their Round 12 NEAFL clash at TIO Traeger Park in Alice Springs, winning 15.10 (100) to 7.6 (48).

In the first of two games Thunder will play in the Red Centre this season, the Hornets gradually wore down their battle-scarred hosts after they’d made a bright start in the match.

Thunder skipped out to a two-goal lead within five minutes of the game getting underway with majors to Dylan Barry and Nathaniel Paredes.

The Alice Springs crowd provided the Thunder team with plenty of vocal support, but reserved most of its energy for the four locals playing in the side, otherwise known as the “Alice Crew” – Barry, captain Abraham Ankers, Ethan Liddle and Nigel Lockyer – with Barry attracting a huge cheer for his first goal inside four minutes and then a second later in the term.

Christopher Yarran popped up for Thunder’s fourth after a chain of possession from defence into attack that included Ankers.

But Aspley saw Thunder’s four goals in the opening quarter and matched it, leaving scores deadlocked at 4.1 apiece at quarter time.

Thunder had matched the Hornets’ output despite the visitors doubling their host’s inside 50 count 18 to nine.

Aspley started turning the screws in the second term though, and the screws became a little easier to turn when Thunder lost two important midfielders, in Clinton Gallio and Brodie Carroll, for the rest of the game due to injury.

That was reflected in the lack of scoring opportunities that came Thunder’s way in the term and it going goal-less for the quarter as Aspley added three through Jordan Arnold, Connor Stackelberg and Jono Freeman to go ahead by 19 points at half-time.

The Hornets took advantage of Thunder’s reduced rotations because of the injuries to Gallio and Carroll in the third quarter, booting the first three goals of the term.

It took two members of the Alice Crew, Ankers and Barry, with a goal apiece, who brought the margin back to a manageable 26 points at three-quarter-time.

The increased workload due to the reduced rotations and some innovative positional changes by coach Darren Reeves to cover gaps saw Thunder gradually fall further behind in the final quarter, only managing the single goal to the Hornets’ five.

Aspley kicked the first three goals of the term before Lockyer brought his home crowd to its feet with a high leaping mark on the wing in front of the grandstand from which he played on, took two bounces and slotted the goal from long range.

It wasn’t enough though and the Hornets kicked another two before the end of the match to give them a solid win and consolidate themselves in the top six in fifth place.

Reeves said his players had given their all in a match that had conspired against them.

“I really can’t question our effort,” he said. “It’s just some of our effort around the contest and how we defended at times, we were just slow to transition and gave up some outlet options and some clean passage of ball and then we missed some tackles, so they were probably the three areas that we were really disappointed with.

“I was really critical of our forward line at half-time. We felt like our defenders were giving us enough of a look at the ball in the second quarter and often we were caught behind and slow to react to get at the ball and gave them a lot of repeat entry, but our defenders were able to hold up really, really well.

Reeves said he’s proud of the way his players persisted in the second half of the match, despite the loss of two players.

“Unfortunately in the second half, even though we had really good crack at it in the third quarter and got ourselves into the game, we were two blokes down on the bench and two midfielders from halfway through the second quarter so that killed us in terms of rotations and trying to manufacture guys in different areas, but I can’t question our effort,” he said.

Reeves said that like most moments of adversity, the loss of Gallio and Carroll had provided the opportunity to explore the talents of some of his players.

“Pleasingly we made some changes during the game and sent Kieran Delahunty back, he did a really nice job back there and Nigel Lockyer went forward and was really solid for us up forward so little things like that are a positive out of the game,” he said.

“Gallio’s hurt a knee and we’re not sure how bad that is at this stage and Carroll got concussed so wasn’t able to participate any more and Carroll was doing a really nice job on (three-time NEAFL MVP winner Matthew) Payne early and that was his role to go and limit Payne’s influence.

“So then you’ve got to go and manufacture other things and Benny Rioli was playing a role down back and then you’ve got to try and change things and get him on the footy and it changes everything, unfortunately.”

Reeves said there were bright glimpses of Thunder’s future through the loss, including a couple of the Alice Crew and another from a little further up the Stuart Highway in Katherine.

“I thought Ethan Liddle was outstanding today, a young Alice Springs fella. Obviously Nigel Lockyer was good. He’s only a young bloke.

“I thought Jess Budarick was really solid too and did some nice things,” Reeves said.

Thunder was forced to change almost half its team from the match before its bye in Round 11, including last-minute changes that saw the late inclusions of youngsters Brandon Rusca and Beau O’Connell.

“We had nine changes from our last game,” Reeves explained. “It’s so bloody hard at the moment, just trying to manufacture things. That’s why I can’t question our effort.”

Meanwhile, Barry said it was a thrill to play in front of friends and family in Alice Springs and in the Thunder colours.

“It was awesome,” he said. “We heard the crowd from the other side of the ground so it was really good.

“The support around the ground, we heard it a lot. It’s good to see with NEAFL footy here.”

Barry is developing into one of Thunder’s more dynamic forwards and said he’s loving being in the program.

“It’s awesome. I’m loving it,” he said. “It’s good to be back here in front of a home crowd, but it’s good to be representing your Territory. I’m loving it.”

NT THUNDER 4.1, 4.2, 6.5, 7.6 (48)

Aspley 4.1, 7.3, 10.7, 15.10 (100)

GOALS: NT Thunder – Dylan Barry 3, Abraham Ankers, Nigel Lockyer, Nathaniel Paredes, Nicholas Yarran.
Aspley – Jono Freeman 3, J. Ives, W. Murphy, J Spencer, C Stackelberg 2, J. Arnold, J Hayden, M Payne, J Nelis.

BEST: NT Thunder – Abraham Ankers, Ethan Liddle, Dylan Barry, Kieren Parnell, Cohan Thielle, Kieran Delahunty.
Aspley –James Ives, Matthew Payne, Connor Stackelberg, William Gowers, Jordan Hayden, Gavin Grose.