NTFL v FREMANTLE DOCKERS report
Kate Waldmann
Fremantle Dockers was a hard-fought and exciting encounter. The
Dockers showed a strong sense of commitment and teamwork in their
first game together, and will probably worry a few AFL sides,
despite the relative lack of AFL experience on the part of some
of their players.
No goals were scored in the first quarter - the honour of
kicking the first ever goal for the Fremantle Dockers went to
David Muir.
But for the 7200 fans, the NTFL won their first Australia Day
carnival since defeating Essendon in 1989. The games have
always been pretty close, but winning is something else,
especially when the NT guys get relatively few chances to play
representative football. And it doesn't take Ron Barassi to
tell us we have got plenty of talented players here! It was
terrific to finally have the representative game played in the
evening under lights - hopefully, there will be a few more high
profile AFL fixtures here now, without teams having to play in
the conditions endured by West Coast and Collingwood a couple of
years back.
Barassi was able to check on the progress of Stefan Carey and Dion
Miles who will play with the Swans, but have been having a
run with St Marys here.
Russell Jeffrey, NTFL captain, never stopped trying playing at
full-back for the and was, as always, inspiring. Mark West
and Devon Perry who won the Australia Day medal, both roved
well all night. The NT side were smaller than their Dockers
counterparts, but in the conditions, both sides were equal,
and this was reflected in the extremely close scoreline all
night. The game was hard and defensive, and low scoring.
Best players for the Dockers were Peter Mann who won the
Australia Day medal for his side, Dale Kickett, Travis Edmonds,
and vice captain Scott Watters. While Gerard Neesham would have
wanted to win, he has little else to be disappointed about. In
fact, ex-Wanderers and NTFL player Gary Dhurrkay had the chance
to put the Dockers in front late in the last quarter, but like
so many other kicks during the night, it was off line, and
the NTFL won shortly afterwards by a point!
Scores: NTFL 0-3 1-7 3-9 4-10
FD 0-1 2-2 4-6 4-9