Magpies manage to upset Darwin
PALMERSTON revived its hopes of a first NTFL finals appearance since 2010 last night when it upset the Darwin Buffaloes by 20 points.
The Magpies led all night in a 14.16 (100) to 12.8 (80) win that lifted them to sixth position on the Premier League ladder.
Palmerston got out of the blocks early when Ian Milera ran into an open goal and continued to run and carry throughout the first term.
Veteran Mishai Perry and Jesse Marshall booted two goals each as the Magpie forward trident created havoc with a Buffalo defence that would not let the breeze through seven days ago.
The formula was simple – a dominant Matthew Dennis in the ruck and players around him prepared to run hard with the ball and use it with maximum efficiency.
New Magpie Josh Grabowski lived up to his name by getting his hands on the football a dozen times and driving his side into attack, while Milera’s pace and appetite for goal left his Buffalo opponents grasping at air.
Fortunately the under-siege Buffaloes had a forward target of their own, Steven Anderson stepping up to grab three goals.
In true Buffalo fashion the 27-point deficit at quarter time was almost run down by the main break.
Stand-in coach Bill Feeney Jr produced a master stroke at the first lemon break, shifting joint captain Cameron Stokes BUFFALOES V PALMERSTON BEST 3.1 9.4 10.6 12.8 7.4 9.7 12.12 14.16 GOALS UMPIRES to a goalkicking role that produced instant dividends.
Stokes led a second-quarter revival that produced six goals to Palmerston’s two, including his second on the half-time siren when he kicked truly from 45 metres. But former Tiger Kyle Emery’s two goals from impossible angles through the third term stretched the Magpies’ lead to 18 points at the last change, a margin made more dangerous when Stokes limped to full forward after appearing to hurt his troublesome left knee.
Stokes responded to any injury scare with a clever snap that brought up the Buffaloes’ 11th goal a minute into the last quarter that got his side to within two goals. Five minutes later he kicked his fourth from a similar snap, but Grabowski squared the ledger a minute later to restore a 12-point lead.