Southern Districts come from behind to secure a thrilling draw with a young Wanderers side

SOUTHERN Districts scrambled a late behind in their NTFL match against Wanderers at Norbuilt Oval to level the scores at the final siren

Josiah Farrer was a driving force for Southern Districts in their heart-stopping draw against Wanderers. Picture: Glenn campbell

SOUTHERN Districts scrambled a late behind in their match against Wanderers at Norbuilt Oval to level the scores at the final siren.

The NTFL’s first draw in 2019-20 only took two rounds to happen and big crowd at the league’s southernmost ground definitely got their moneys worth.

Eagles’ running forward Dray Thompson got the scoring underway with a mark and goal midway through the first term.

Kevin Thompson added another for the Muk Muks, and then it was the turn of Districts midfielder Josiah Farrer to display some brilliance with a running goal from outside 50m to open the home side’s account.

Despite the dominance of Wanderers big man Scott Meyer, both in the middle and around the

ground, the second stanza belonged to Districts who booted the next three goals – a late Brenton Motlop major was one of the few redeeming features for the Eagles in that quarter.

In the third, Wanderers took the lead with goals to Simon Bates, Tyrrell Lui and Shane Thorne.

Both sides were courageous in the final term – each held slender leads until a Zach Smith

minor score evened the ledger with seconds left.

Wanderers coach Shannon Motlop thought his team could hang on to its slim lead

near the end, but rued missed opportunities.

“We were behind, we caught up and got in front, but you can take it for what it is – we didn’t win a game we should have.” he said.

“We had to get the rotations right – they weren’t running too well early in the piece. We finally got them right and it almost got us over the line – but in the end we just weren’t good enough.

“Scott (Meyer) ended up having to ruck out for most of the day which was a massive effort – we probably didn’t capitalise on his dominance.”

S’DISTRICTS 3.4 6.7 6.9 9.12 66

WANDERERS 3.4 4.6 7.9 9.12 66

GOALS — Districts: W Farrer 3 J Farrer 2 W Izaak B Schwarze B Ngalkin J Clarke

Wanderers: S Thorne 2 D Thompson K Thompson R Fejo S Bates J Jeffrey B Motlop T Lui.

BEST — Districts: T Holman S Barnett J Schofield M Bowden W Farrer. Wanderers: S Meyer K Thompson R Fejo D Thompson D Weetra