Nightcliff home in a nailbiter

NIGHTCLIFF survived an almighty scare from Brothers at Rugby Park last night to win 30-26 and keep its season alive.

The Dragons will battle minor premiers Palmerston next weekend for a place in the NRL NT grand final, but if they play at the same intensity, they will be up against it.

The Brethren came back from 30-20 down with three minutes left to get within a whisker of knocking Nightcliff out of the competition.

After Dale Gilbert touched down late, the blue and whites went straight up the field following the subsequent kick-off.

Nathan Roach fired a bomb on the last tackle, which wasn’t handled by Nightcliff, and Leon Rotumah went within inches from the try line. But the Dragons held on, just.

“Those last 30 seconds were nailbiting, the old toes were all squished up in the feet,” Dragons coach Daniel Roach told the Sunday Territorian.

“The boys hung on, it was good to see.

“They dug in well and that’s what finals football is all about.”

At 20-all with 25 minutes remaining, the game took a dramatic twist when Brothers forward Michael Bouwer was sent off for a high tackle on Nightcliff skipper Ed Murphy.

Brothers’ expansive style had caused the Dragons a major headache up until that point, with the bounce of the ball going their way on two try-scoring occasions.

But Roach said he was proud of the way his side had scrambled.

“We were expecting Brothers to play the way they did, they even said in the paper they were going to throw it around, and they pulled it off,” Roach said.

“But next week is a different game; we weren’t expecting to play Palmerston, but in finals, anything can happen.

“Last year, Palmerston went out in straight sets and we’ll try to do it to them again.

“We just have to control the ball more and work better around the ruck.”