World Footy News

The Northern Territory Top End summer footy season roared back into life last weekend with four Premier league matches to kick off 2015. The NTFL (Northern Territory Football League) got off to a flyer with a triple header at TIO Stadium in Darwin, with the showcase of the round being the traditional Grand Final rematch from the previous season – Wanderers against St Mary’s.

The feature match was a thriller, and treated the crowd to an exciting come from behind win to last year’s premiers – Wanderers. The St Mary’s crew skipped out to a five point lead by quarter time, despite only having three scoring shots to eight. The adage of bad kicking being bad football was on display as Wanderers squandered opportunities whilst the Saints made the most of theirs kicking three straight to Wanderers one goal seven behinds.

St Mary’s held a two goal lead by half time and were still four points up at the final change. A ripping last quarter saw Wanderers able to grab the lead and hand on by just three points in a match that may have set the tone for the new season. Final score saw Wanderers 9 13 67 defeat St Mary’s 10 4 64.

In other results, the earlier matches saw last year’s wooden-spooners, Waratah, outplay the Tiwi Bombers in something of an upset. The final scores saw Waratah 20 9 129 defeat Tiwi Bombers 10 16 76. The evening’s other match saw the Palmerston Magpies bring hope to a new season when they downed Buffaloes. The final score saw Palmerston 17 12 114 defeat Buffaloes 10 11 71.

The other match of the round was played on Sunday with Nightcliff Tigers hosting Southern District, but sadly for them it did not help the result. The Crocs were too good for the Tigers running out convincing winners, 23 8 146 to 11 12 78 to claim the first top spot for the year.

Next round will see Nightcliff take on the Tiwi Bombers, Wanderers clash with Waratah, St Mary’s up against Buffaloes and Southern District to tackle Palmerston.