Palmerston, Brothers and Litchfield stand tall after five rounds of 2025 NRL NT
Heart-stopping finishes and plenty of tries punctuated by the emotion of the Mitchell Russell Shield have three sides sitting tied at the top after five rounds. Catch up on the latest NRL NT action.
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The Palmerston Raiders scored a heart stopping try to secure themselves the Mitchell Russell Shield and set up a three way top of the table tie after five rounds.
After five rounds of competition reigning premiers Darwin Brothers, the Litchfield Bears and the Palmerston Raiders are all bunched up with four wins each on top of the table.
Palmerston have been the big improvers in 2025 and made sure everyone knew they’re heading in the right direction with a last gasp victory try in their face-off with Litchfield to win 24-22.
As is typical the Mitchell Russell Shield was an emotional tie between two clubs that usually sit at the pointy end of the ladder.
The match is played in honour of Russell who played for both clubs before the 23-year-old was killed in a crash in 2014.
Again it was played with plenty of emotion with Palmerston taking the early lead with their David Russell rising to the occasion in the match commemorating his brother.
Litchfield clawed their way back into the contest with braces from both leading try scorer Naylor Symons and David Jacobson.
But it wasn’t to be a lead they held on to as a final gasp effort saw the Raiders hit the front once more, largely aided by the accurate boot of Jack Walsh.
It was Litchfield’s first defeat of the season and puts both them and Palmerston on level pegging with the Darwin Brothers, who beat Nightcliff 46-10.
The Brethren were without Caleb Niki and Trent Kurnoth, but Aaron Kurnoth stood tall leading the side around and scoring two tries himself.
Elijah Coombes and Nick Yarran both had strong performances too, while Antonio James injected himself plenty into the attack setting up an interesting run to come.
The three top sides have each taken a win away from each other and with ten rounds to go it will be a matter of stamina and depth standing up through the season.
Litchfield are the best attacking side with 194 points scored across five rounds, bolstered by a 68-0 drubbing of South Darwin bringing their point different to 122.
Palmerston sit at a point difference of 92 so sit second despite winning the head to head and the Brothers are on 74, with the best defence in the comp only conceding 72 points.
Meanwhile, the Northern Sharks claimed their first win of the season with a 70-10 defeat of South Darwin Rabbitohs and will need to fight to push their way into the top four.
Adam Hall topped the scoring with three tries while Jayden Mick was a revelation off the tee knocking through 11 from his 12 attempts to convert.
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Originally published as Palmerston, Brothers and Litchfield stand tall after five rounds of 2025 NRL NT
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