Trent blazes trail for Tigers

NIGHTCLIFF has seemingly found its answer at fullforward in the shape of Trent Melville.

The Tea Tree Gully sharpshooter bagged 10 goals at Tiwi Oval yesterday against the Bombers in his side’s 22.12 (144) to 14.13 (97) win.

After playing a Division 1 game last season, Melville has relocated to Darwin for the 2018-19 season and is proving his worth.

He has kicked 20 majors in four outings already.

The Tigers notched 13 goals to Tiwi’s six in the first two quarters, including eight from the South Australian’s boot.

“I haven’t kicked 10 in a few years, so it’s been a while,” Melville said.

“I just go out there and try and compete and I was just lucky enough that they stuck. It wasn’t too humid and thankfully they went through.”

When the Bombers turned the footy over, Nightcliff capitalised. If it wasn’t for three Dion Munkara goals, the 41point main break margin would have been larger.

Tiwi responded in the third quarter, kicking four goals to three, but a 36-point deficit at the final break was a task too big.

Brodie Filo was all class in his first game of the season, finishing with a brace of goals, while skipper Nathan Brown put in a brilliant defensive performance.

TIWI BOMBERS V NIGHTCLIFF TIGERS

BEST 2.3 6.7 10.10 14.13 7.3 13.6 16.10 22.12 GOALS

At times, it went goal for goal. Tiwi looked most dangerous when Munkara was on the ball, with Jason Puruntatameri and Sylvani Babui the best of the Bombers’ back six.

Brenton Toy said his side put patches of good football together, but couldn’t sustain it.

“It was an interesting game,” the Tiwi coach said.

“A lot of up and down, back and forth, not a lot of contested ball, but Nightcliff in those contested situations were superior.

“Their power forwards have great hands and hardly missed their set shots. I said to my guys that I couldn’t fault their effort.

“There is work to do on our concentration and processes, but in terms of our effort, we were OK.”