Fighting Thunder go close to glory

NT THUNDER suffered another loss, this time a fighting 11-point defeat to Southport in its away match at Fankhauser Reserve.

However the team showed promise against arguably the best team in the NEAFL.

It looked as though last year’s premiers were going to break away after holding a 29point lead at halftime.

But the third quarter brought some of the best football seen from Thunder this year, with a refreshed Kieren Parnell providing valued assistance in the back pocket and Dylan Barry strong across the field and kicking two goals.

The stronger performances at away games are starting to look like a theme at Thunder — it wasn’t the same team that copped a thrashing from Gold Coast on home turf last weekend.

Coach Darren Reeves was still disappointed about another loss, but said he was proud of his team’s efforts and hoped the form displayed against such a strong opponent would inspire some confidence in the Thunder moving forward.

“Obviously disappointed, but we came with one thing in mind and that was getting intent and effort right after last weekend. That had been a downfall and we hadn’t been consistent with that,” he said.

“It felt like our effort was there and if we could just fix some little areas around the contest and just keep backing ourselves in then we’d get opportunities to score.”

“Hopefully they take heaps of belief away that the effort and talent is there to match it with the best teams in the competition.”

Reeves was observant where Southport ended up outclassing Thunder — his team will look to improve its skills around the contest.

“They’re (Southport) really efficient around the contest. They’re clean with their hands and have numbers to hold space and attack from there. I think the possession count at the end was (a lot) more possessions than us,” he said.

Thunder 3.3 6.7 12.10 14.12 (96) def by Southport 5.3 11.6 14.9 16.11 (107) Goals Thunder: T Melville 3, S Rioli 3, D Barry 2, A Ankers 2, A Tipungwuti 2, B Taylor, D Staunton

Southport: J Hall 5, M Johnson 4, T Stubbs 2, J Williams, M Willis, M Manteit, L Dale, T Bowie Best Thunder: K Parnell, S Rioli, T Melville, D Barry, A Ankers, D Weetra

Southport: J Hall, D Fyfe, S Tape, T Roos, B Murdoch, J Williams