Dominant Guilhaus sees off St Mary’s

NIGHTCLIFF man mountain Seb Guilhaus backed up his impassioned speech at last month’s NT Thunder club champion night with a dominant first-up showing in the NTFL yesterday.

The 198cm ruckman had little competition in the big man stakes, with St Mary’s missing spring-heeled pair Tony Olango and Daniel Lewis and instead relying on athletic ex-AFL utility Raphael Clarke.

Guilhaus was one of Nightcliff’s best players as they upset the reigning premiers.

“We couldn’t ask for a better start to the season. They had a few players out, so take it with a pinch of salt, but we’re ecstatic,” Guilhaus said.

“I know Raph from playing with him at Thunder and he’s a clever player – as he showed – but he’s not a ruckman, so I knew we’d get ascendancy with the taps.

“But I needed to be smart with it and a few times I wasn’t. Next time they’ll have some big meat in there.”

Guilhaus arrived in the Top End at the end of 2013 after making the SANFL Team of the Year with Central District.

He impressed for the NTFL Tigers and went on to Thunder from there, but that was where his problems began.

Guilhaus managed 10 NEAFL games that year, but admitted he “disappeared” and struggled mentally as severe knee tendonitis wore him down.

He referred to that time in his acceptance speech three weeks ago as Thunder’s best clubman, at the end of a season where he was also a hugely valuable on-field presence.

“When I came to (Thunder coach) Xavier Clarke at the beginning of 2016, I felt like I was begging him to give me a go,” Guilhaus said.

“I wanted to see if I could use their resources and rebuild my body ... it ended up being a fantastic year and I felt like I’ve redeemed my footy and it’s such a big part of my life.

“It’s not just the mateship (at a footy club) ... in sport you can really show yourself who you are and I just needed it. When that was gone, I did feel lost and didn’t regard myself very highly and lost my selfconfidence and self-belief.”