Dragons prevail in fiery stoush

luke.hayes@news.com.au NIGHTCLIFF Dragons kept arch-rivals Brothers at bay, defeating their opponents in a strong second-half charge 30-14, ejecting Brothers from the NRL NT finals.

Brothers appeared to swing the match momentum back to their favour early in the second half, drawing an equalising try for Tommy Clarke to follow through, kicking a two-point lead.

However, Dragons once again seized power and the pendulum of momentum never swung back to Brothers for the match remainder.

A heated melee erupted upon the final siren, with an all-in brawl between both sides, with visible punches were thrown. The Sunday Territorian understands the final incident has been put on report pending review.

Dragons coach Merg Mikaelian weighed in on the scuffle.

“Disappointing to finish like that, we don’t need that rubbish in footy,” he told the Sunday Territorian.

“I don’t know who was at fault but all the boys are better than that.”

Mikaelian was relieved his players stuck to their structures, something that has plagued them in recent weeks.

“We had a specific effort, every time we did our yardage sets, we knew we needed to get to that and to our kicks,” he said.

“I felt we did that quite well.”

The other explosive final at Territory Rugby League Stadium saw Palmerston Raiders finally fell their seemingly unstoppable Litchfield opponents 30-24 after what seemed like an unbeatable Bears campaign.

It was a replica of Palmerston’s previous two seasons, going undefeated for the season entirety to suffer a first loss in finals.

A stung Bears side will be back for redemption next week against a hungry Nightcliff.