2025-26 NTFL live stream: Watch St Mary’s v Southern Districts women in Round 1

Reigning premiers St Mary’s have pulled off a successful start to their title defence against a Districts outfit plenty of sides will be wary of. Watch the full match REPLAY.

The St Mary’s women have started their title defence with a win against a much-changed Southern Districts outfit that the rest of the competition will be wary of.

Both sides showed off their new-look teams with Districts in particular having done some heavy recruiting in the off-season to bolster their chances of a finals push.

Their renewed talent showed as they never let the reigning premiers rest easy, while Saints had their own difficulties in front of goal as they finished the 6.14 (50) to 5.3 (33) winners.

Saints were graced plenty of new talents of their own including Perth Football Club player Isabella Shannon who starred up front with three goals.

The Crocs defence made life difficult putting on the pressure while Saints gave away free kicks when moments were on in a match missing a lot of their leaders from last season.

But that gave chance for the rest of their cohort to step up with Lexie Cagney getting stuck in while Jemma Iacono returned for her match since the 2023-24 season.

There would have been plenty of concerns in the Saints camp when last year’s Rising Star winner Shakaila Gardiner-Dunn went down at three quarter time.

The versatile player who kicked all three goals and was named best on ground in last year’s grand final stayed down for a lengthy period of time.

She eventually managed to hobble off on her own weight and was back out midway through the final term to put off any concerns of missing games.

The Crocs further proved they will be a force when moments into the fourth quarter Bonnie Brown managed to bump off her opponent and shoot through the sticks.

Stephanie Simmonds from Norwood was another to shine getting an earlier goal and showed her experience as the Crocs tried to work their way back into the contest.

But it wasn’t a gap they could close down completely spraying a couple late and the final goal from Shannon was enough for the win.

PREVIEW

St Mary’s are set to begin their Women’s Premier League title defence against fierce foe in Southern Districts, who is one of many to have made big moves in the NTFL off-season.

Every moment of the match will be live streamed from 6pm on Friday by The NT News and KommunityTV as part of our season-long coverage.

WHY TO WATCH

St Mary’s claimed their first flag in more than a decade last season holding on their lead by a slender one point against a persistent Nightcliff outfit.

Now another year on the young side go again with plenty of their powerhouse performers returning including last year’s grand final best on ground and rising star winner Shakaila Gardiner-Dunn.

The NTFL women's grand final between St Mary's and the Nightcliff Tigers. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

The Saints dropped their first two games last season but didn’t lose again for the rest of the season and if that’s their main blemish a quick start is what they will want this year.

Districts were the heavy recruiters in the women’s competition off-season and have a strong squad including former Palmerston young gun Taelah Smith to back that up.

NRL NT Gaynor Maggs winner Erin Luchetti crosses codes to bring her talents alongside rep player Emma Forsyth while 2020 premiership player Grace Mulvahil returns to her home club.

HOW TO WATCH

The NT News, KommunityTV and AFL Northern Territory have come together in a partnership to live stream both the men’s and women’s Premier League games for this TIO NTFL season.

On game day, the live stream for this match will appear at the top of this story in the lead up to the first bounce.

To find other games from this round click the links in the schedule box above.

Alternatively you can head to www.kommunitytv.com.au and use the video player at the top of the site to watch all the action live and scroll through the most recent replays.

Only News Corp Australia full digital subscribers will have exclusive access to watch the action.

Originally published as 2025-26 NTFL live stream: Watch St Mary’s v Southern Districts women in Round 1