To many, the draw between Palmerston Magpies and Waratah rates as an upset. Certainly, few would have expected that the bottom team would get up and share the points with the team that has recently impressed so many. However, that is at face value. Digging a little further, there is evidence that Palmerston was due for a win – and when you are the bottom team, a win against any team higher could be seen as an upset.

But, digging into the eight defeats this year for the ‘Pies, their average losing margin is just 39 points – which is low for a bottom team. Their biggest defeat of the season was last weekend by 65 points against Nightcliff. Also, most of their defeats can be traced back to one poor quarter (or a little more) where concentration dropped and the opposition got off the chain. It suggests that any time Palmerston can put together four solid quarters they are a capable unit.

 

Marc McGowan from the www.afl.com.au website looks at the success of Darwin-based club – St Mary’s – in producing some of the greatest AFL players of all time – and plenty of other useful footballers. World Footy News reports regularly on the Northern Territory Football League, and many people Australia-wide are becoming more familiar with the NT talent, as well as one of the country’s most successful football clubs.

Those five words are the catchcry of the bloodlines-rich St Mary's Football Club, home to the legendary Rioli and Long clans, in the Northern Territory.  

A club formed in 1952 as somewhere for Darwin-based Tiwi Islanders to play – and initially rejected for having a team of mostly "full-blood" Aboriginals – has blossomed into one of Australia's most successful.

Yes, it might be a foolish, early call, but there is every sign that Waratah might just be the real deal to go deep into this season’s NTFL finals series. Their win on Friday night against the previously undefeated Southern Districts Crocs at TIO Stadium, when taken in isolation, was just a bloody good performance. However, when looked at over a longer five-match performance there are some even better signs.

Round Five saw Waratah pull of an “upset” win against Nightcliff. But, looking back now, it may not have been so much an upset as a pointer to what would come. Two inconsistent performances against the Buffaloes and Bombers have been followed by a total dismantling of fellow finals aspirant, Wanderers, and now they have outlasted Crocs in a tight match – proof also that they can handle pressure when on their game. Should they continue in this vein of form, Waratah will play finals and will worry other teams. Crocs will be one of them, kept to their lowest score of the season by a miserly Waratah defence. Star Croc, Will Farrer, was kept to just two goals while Kim Kantilla kicked another five for Waratah.

The following media release from the AFLNT details the selection of five Northern Territory footballers about to embark on a trip to Fiji as part of the Rio Tinto AFL Flying Boomerangs squad. Each was selected at the end of the AFL National Diversity & Kickstart Championships back in April where the best indigenous and multicultural footballers from across Australia in the Under 15 age group played each other in a state versus state competition. The best players gained national selection in the Flying Boomerangs (indigenous) and All Nations (multicultural) squads.

Five Territorians will join the Rio Tinto AFL Flying Boomerangs Leadership Program, which begins tomorrow, Saturday December 2, in Fiji.

Clarence Baird (Palmerston Football Club), Joel Jeffrey (Wanderers Football Club), Brodie Lake (Southern Districts Football Club), Tyrell Lui (Wanderers Football Club) and Reggie Gallagher (CAFL) were all selected on the back of their performances at the 2017 AFL National Diversity Championships held in Blacktown earlier this year. 

Following just a year after Jack Bowes made his way to the Gold Coast Suns from Cairns, fellow Cairns Saints product Jacob Heron has taken the same route – pre-selected prior to today’s Rookie Draft as category B Rookie. Whilst it might not sound quite so glamourous as Bowes’ selection in the top ten of the 2016 draft, make no mistake – Heron is the equal of Bowes and will find his way to the Gold Coast Suns senior list very quickly.

Like Bowes, Heron is a player that I have coached against. Thankfully, not as often. His pace is electrifying, especially when he reaches open space. His skills, from the point of view of an opposition coach, are flabbergasting. Dangerous on both sides of the body, Heron could change a game – and often did.

But there is more to Jacob that simply football skills. This is a young man who lived and breathed the game. Off field you could see him throughout his junior career helping his club as an umpire, water boy, whatever was needed. His involvement in the game was total.

The West Coast Eagles have swooped and selected Northern Territory ruckman, Tony Olango, with their second pick, #27 overall, at today's AFL Rookie Draft. The young giant - of Kenyan and Sudanese descent - missed selection in 2016, but will now head west as an Eagle. 

Marc McGowan, from the www.afl.com.au website looked at another Northern Territory talent ahead of this afternoon’s AFL Rookie Draft. With the Brisbane Lions selecting Territorian, Zac Bailey, at pick #15 at last week’s national draft, big ruckman Tony Olango (of Kenyan and Sudanese descent) was one of a group of other players hoping for another chance to get onto an AFL club list today.

INTRIGUING Kenyan-born Sudanese talent Tony Olango's AFL future rests in the hands of two clubs at opposite ends of Australia. 

AFL.com.au understands West Coast and Geelong are both considering recruiting the 201cm jack-in-the-box ruckman in Monday's NAB AFL Rookie Draft.

Even curious onlookers love it when a horse stays with the rest of the field for most of the race, then bursts free coming into the home straight and races away to victory. The footy equivalent is no less exciting – euphoric for the victor and shattering for the team that has been trampled. Saints did it to Palmerston last weekend, and this weekend it was Nightcliff running over the top of the Tiwi Bombers.

Nightliff Tigers stayed close enough to the Bombers for the first three quarter of their match at TIO Stadium on Saturday night. The Bombers held a narrow eleven-point lead at the final change and would have hoped to at least hold their ground in the final quarter. But, the Tigers had other ideas and after kicking six goals in three quarters, unleashed another six in the final term of a low scoring match to claim a come from behind 13 point victory. The win keeps Nightcliff in second place, but the loss stings for the Bombers, leaving them outside the top five.

When young Zac Bailey galloped out of a centre clearance for the Allies, in their clash with the Vic Metro team at the Under 18 National Championships earlier this year, he changed the game and ensured an upset Allies win. He may have hoped for, but couldn’t know, that he had also turned on the neon sign that alerted recruiters to his talent and potential. Not only did he gain All-Australian U18 selection, he also lit the pathway lights to draft day.

It was, therefore, little surprise to those who know him that Bailey was selected by the Brisbane Lions at last night’s NAB Rising Stars Draft at pick 15. The journey had reached a new destination, and young Zac now has a dream come true – an AFL career. The junior from Southern Districts Crocs in the NTFL had followed past Territorians to the highest level of the game.

Last season was one to forget for the Tiwi Bombers. A wooden spoon followed some ordinary performances across the season and led to a commitment from everyone at the club to access all areas and find improvement. Their win on the weekend made in three in seven rounds – already surpassing their total wins for last season. Positive signs are coming from the Tiwi Islands as the club rebuilds.

A home fixture for Waratah didn’t help greatly as the Tiwi Bombers got away to a handy early lead and still held a 20 point lead at the main break, courtesy of an after-the-siren goal to former Melbourne Demon Liam Jurrah, lining up again for the Bombers. A seven goal third quarter for the Bombers put the game safely out of the reach of Waratah, despite a 12 goal shoot-out in the last quarter, with Waratah kicking seven to reduce the gap. The Bombers would be heartened by the performance of first game player Jake Best who kicked seven goals in his Bomber debut.

Essendon’s first to fourth year players have returned to the club for pre-season training, and the first order of business has been visiting communities across the “Top End” of the Northern Territory. Natalie MacGregor has reported on the club’s website that star Bomber, Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, and the rest of the touring squad visited Maningrida, on the north coast of Arnhem Land approximately 500 kilometres east of Darwin.

Giving back to the community is important to Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti

Visiting the remote indigenous community of Maningrida, West Arnhem Land, as part of the Club’s ‘Right of Passage’ camp with first to fourth year players this week, McDonald-Tipungwuti said the group would benefit greatly from the experience.

 

“The players will take a lot away from the whole experience,” McDonald-Tipungwuti said.