Tenacious Nightcliff take it up to Bears

A VALIANT effort from Nightcliff Dragons was not quite enough to stop the dominant force of Litchfield Bears in Round 13 of the NRL NT Agrade competition, the score settling at 40-28.

Bears coach Jake Barnes said it was almost a try-for-try game.

“It was fast paced, it was high scoring. Both teams kind of struggled to maintain momentum,” he told the Sunday Territorian.

“No one really built that 15 minutes of extended pressure, one team would score then make and error and viceversa.”

Nightcliff coach Merg Mikaelian was pleased with his team’s efforts this week, they proved to be solid opposition against the undefeated Bears side.

“I think our effort was one hundred per cent better than it has been the last few weeks. I was really pleased with the players,” he said.

“The fact of the matter is, we still gave Litchfield too much ball. They capitalised and took their chances, that was the difference between the two teams.

“Their fifth tackle options and their kicking game, particularly from Matt Goodfellow was far superior.”

Leading try scorers for Bears were Aaron Crawford and Jeromie Edwards with two apiece, while Jone Vaklacegu’s valuable return to Dragons earned him two tries.

The other A-grade fixtures for the weekend saw Palmerston crush Souths a whopping 90-0, with winger Will Beers scoring three tries, while Delcan MacGillivray ran two across the line and kicked seven goals.

Meanwhile, Brothers defeated Sharks 28-16 with skipper Leon Rotumah the leading try scorer, planting two tries.