Buffaloes trample Tiwi

DARWIN survived sea sickness, a scrambled warm-up and a six-goal deficit after 15 minutes to beat Tiwi by 42 points on Bathurst Island yesterday.

Down by a point at the final change, the Buffaloes romped home to trample the Bombers, who kicked only five majors after their opening-quarter blitz.

It was a courageous performance considering the hurdles Darwin had to overcome.

“With the pre-game preparation today, with no planes to fly over, we had six blokes crook spewing on the ferry,” playing/coach Matt Campbell said yesterday.

“As a coach, you start to wonder if you are going to have players to play. Fortunately, 10 minutes out from land we started to see some of the boys get their bearings, but the game was at 1.30pm and we got off the ferry at 12pm.

“We had to walk from the ferry, which is OK – it’s a nice walk through the community of Tiwi. But then you get to the ground and there’s a small change room and not much room to warm up.

“That was the cause for that first quarter. We just weren’t ready with our preparation.”

Darren Shillabeer led the Buffaloes fightback, kicking seven second-half goals in a bag of eight.

The Buffaloes’ record now sits at 4-1 with the South Australian in their line-up.

“He gives us a target to kick to. It doesn’t matter where he is, he is pretty straight,” Campbell said of his full forward.

“He’s an SANFL-calibre forward, so it’s always awesome to have him in the team.”

Leslie Maroney and Tim Eldridge were outstanding through the midfield and provided quality delivery to Shillabeer, while Kelvin Williams and Bradley Stokes were strong in defence.

Tiwi coach Brenton Toy said his side’s second-half collapses needed to be addressed.

“I don’t know if it’s complacency that slips in, or fatigue that kicks in, but we just really struggled to play the opposition when they started to get the footy on their terms,” Toy said.

“There was a lot of frustration expressed (post-game), a lot of learnings to take away. The focus really shifts to our next game against Wanderers.

“The importance of next week is magnified now. If this week was important, then next week is twice as important.” GOALS BEST UMPIRES