CROCS THROUGH TO THE NTFL GRAND FINAL
Minor premiers sink Nightcliff and now face Buffs in NTFL decider
THE drought continues.
Nightcliff’s bid to end its barren 52-year run without an NTFL premiership has been ruined by Southern Districts, who produced a commanding 34-point victory in last night’s Premier League elimination final at TIO Stadium.
The Crocodiles executed a complete team performance to overrun the Tigers, kicking seven goals to two either side of half-time to take control of the match. Shannon Rusca’s side finished with 10 individual goal-kickers, while also preventing Nightcliff from kicking back-to-back goals after quarter time.
Districts are through to their first grand final since their premiership season of 2006-07, something the Crocs boss is excited about.
“It’s been six years of me coaching and three prelim finals, and this happened to fall our way,” Rusca said.
“The group has worked extremely hard. The boys have been resilient.”
Club champion Ed Barlow was brilliant for the minor premiers in the first half, accumulating large volumes of the ball and helping to set up multiple attacking thrusts.
The creativity of Lionel Ogden was a highlight throughout the night for the Crocodiles, while the precision of Matt Rosier and hardness of Tim Brook were telling off half back. Versatile utility Sam Smith was influential for Districts all over the ground, while Rory O’Brien showed his class with two sublime goals.
The first quarter turned into somewhat of a shootout as Nightcliff burst out of the blocks with a quick goal to exciting forward Koko Niki.
Districts answered with three majors of their own — including a brilliant snap out of congestion by O’Brien — before the momentum swung Nightcliff’s way.
The Tigers booted four of the next five goals of the match — two courtesy of Nichols Medal favourite Cameron Ilett — to take a three-point lead into the quarter-time break.
From there Districts took complete control of the match, maintaining a handy buffer and not allowing Nightcliff to score two majors in a row for the remainder of the game.
Nightcliff coach Chris Baksh lamented his side’s inability to apply more scoreboard pressure in the first term. “(I’m) frustrated. We didn’t take our chances in the first quarter which broke their backs,” he said. “We know what we’ve got to do work on. Our bottom-line players know where they’ve got to be at. It hurts and we’ve got to prepare for next year.”
Koko Niki played his second outstanding game in a row for the Tigers, while Kaine Riley and Paul Scanlon were also impressive.