Saints young guns Salmon and Rioli star in 13-point win over Southern Districts

ST MARY’S shut the door on the NTFL top two with their 13-point win over Southern Districts yesterday

St Mary’s ruckman Braxton AhMat grabs front position in this marking contest. Picture: GLENN CAMPBELL

ST MARY’S shut the door on the NTFL top two with their 13-point win over Southern Districts yesterday.

Saints won a low scoring affair 10.10 (70) to 8.9 (57) that sealed the double chance and completed a return to finals football for the 32-time league premier.

Young guns Joseph Salmon and Maurice Rioli Jr were prominent through the middle and up forward, Salmon confirming his status as one of the competition’s rising stars with three opportunist goals for his new side.

“It was pretty tough out there with the slippery ball and wet ground, but we did enough to get over the line,’’ former Wanderers player Salmon said.

“Saints have a great culture and a lot of good people around the footy club, it’s 100 per cent better than Wanderers.’’

Both sides looked sluggish in the first term, set shots from Saint Leroy Larson and Crocodile Josh Innes the only goals kicked in a scrappy 21 minutes of football.

There was no Seb Guilhaus for Districts or Nate Paredes and Ryan Smith for St Mary’s, but the intensity from both sides made up for the absence of class players.

That intensity turned into goals in the first 10 minutes of the second term, Saints kicking three in a row through Jackson Paine, Joseph Salmon and Shaun Edwards and Districts replying with the next three.

Dean Staunton’s long shot for Districts’ fifth goal and fourth for the quarter put them eight points in front after trailing by as much as 17.

The brilliance of Josiah Farrer kept Districts in the game, his trademark left foot kicking producing four goals and several headaches for the St Mary’s defence.

Goals by Edwards and Maurice Rioli kept Districts at bay in the last quarter despite more hard running and a nicely taken goal from Farrer.