Miraculous NTFL goal rekindles memories of all-time classic AFL matchwinning moment
A 19-year-old ruckman has produced a moment of madness in the NTFL, rekindling memories of one of the AFL’s most famous goals.
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Karlson Kantilla has a long way to go to match the footballing deeds of the legendary AFL star Malcolm Blight, but a goal he kicked this week shows he has at least one of the traits required.
All football-loving fans fondly remember Blight’s incredible after-the-siren torpedo goal to win the game for North Melbourne against Carlton at Princes Park in 1976.
Last weekend Kantilla, a 19-year-old ruckman from the Tiwi Bombers, who has also played for Essendon’s VFL team, took a leaf out of Blight’s book with an insane bomb from inside the centre square which registered maximum points.
As the above video shows, the similarities between the two goals are uncanny, all the way down to the run up and the trajectory of the ball.
While Kantilla’s goal didn’t win the game for his team (they were down by 93 points at the time), it was done with a heavy ball in dewey Darwin conditions and we reckon it travelled just as far as Blight’s monster kick.
Boomer’s possible return
Speaking of former North Melbourne and AFL legends it was remarkable to hear this week that AFL games record holder Brent “Boomer” Harvey is refusing to rule out a shock return to the sport he clearly loves.
Last year, Harvey made headlines when he suffered a horrific broken leg, and had to wait nearly an hour for an ambulance, while playing local footy for North Heidelberg in Melbourne’s Northern Football League.
At the time, many thought that would be the end of his storied career which included 432-games at the top level.
However, this week Harvey, who turns 46 in May, revealed he will play some masters games for a touring team in Croatia and Bali in October, while he is also considering a return to competition games at local level.
“I’m not 100 per cent sure how that (a return) all looks at the minute. Having 12 months off of footy has made me realise how much I do love the game,” Harvey said.
“I do have a saying I like to go by which is ‘never say never’ so we might stick with that. I know there’ll be opportunities for me to play games here and there so we’ll see what happens.”
Happy Macca’s local deal
On the subject of former greats unexpectedly returning to local comps, it came as a big surprise to see Australia’s national men’s cricket coach Andrew McDonald pull on the whites in Geelong last weekend.
Originally listed as “fill in” on the team sheet, the man known as Ronald came out in the middle order for Geelong West in the fifth grade in and promptly made a comfortable 62 in his team’s easy win.
One could be forgiven for thinking the opposition players may have been a little miffed to have a former Test player opposing them in fifth grade suburban cricket, but that was not the case according to South Barwon’s Dave Bullock.
“We didn’t know that Andrew was playing but all of us appreciated the opportunity to step onto a cricket ground with him,” Bullock said.
“Our guys loved the opportunity to play against Andrew and enjoyed and appreciated the way he went about the game.
“A very nice guy.”
Worst possible injury timing
Thankfully McDonald emerged unscathed from his weekend cricket which is more than we can say for Preston’s Amit Chaudhary who may take the prize for the most ill-timed injury of the year.
Picture the scene: one ball remaining, three runs needed to win with Chaudhary at the non-striker’s end as teammate Dennis Maratos faces up.
Maratos can only manage to hit the ball to mid-on as the batting duo scamper to try and run the two required for the tie.
Unfortunately, as the remarkable video shows, Chaudhary did his best to reach the other end of the pitch before pulling up lame and couldn’t even turn around to start a second run, thereby handing a one-run victory to opponents Taylor’s Lakes.
Gaza saga continues
It wouldn’t be a weekly wrap of local sport without some mention of the running soap opera surrounding Adelaide’s Gaza Football Club which has been found guilty of cheating the salary cap system over many years.
Ahead of Tuesday’s hearing which is likely to hand down severe penalties, which may possibly end the club, there were more developments this week with president Don Rosella sensationally resigning.
Clearly not one to go quietly, Rosella was keen to let all and sundry know what he really thought of all that had transpired.
“They roped me into joining the committee and becoming a sponsor because the club needed money – they wanted me to help but then when things went bad they turned on me,” Rosella parroted.
“I don’t ever want to step foot in a place where they shake your hand and then you get stabbed in the back.”
Junior sports star of the week
This week our vote goes to 15-year-old snooker sensation Jason Yu from Darwin.
Mere days after celebrating his birthday Yu not only won the national snooker championship in his age group (for the second year in a row) but then also backed up to beat players older than him and also claiming the national under 18 title.
Quote of the week
“Just let the kids play,” pleaded Melbourne mum Amee Carrick upon hearing that her son’s under 10 AFL competition in the Essendon District Football League is considering introducing a rule which only allows stand-up tackles while also planning to stop awarding goalkicking and best and fairest awards.
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