Wanderers play smart football to beat hot favourites the Tiwi Bombers in an NTFL classic

WANDERERS came of age as a football club last night when its emerging players played the game of their short senior careers to beat the Tiwi Bombers

Jarred Erlandson was one of Wanderers’ best players in their upset win over the Tiwi Bombers.

WANDERERS came of age as a football club last night when its emerging players played the game of their short senior careers to beat the Tiwi Bombers.

The Eagles came from behind to kick nine of the last 13 goals of the match to record their best win in years over their island neighbours.

Two sides with plenty of leg speed and a truckload of skill were always going to put on a show and that is what happened at Marrara last night.

A goal of the year candidate from Tiwi champion Ross Tungatalum, the Wanderers debut of thrill-a-minute former Tiwi Michael Cooper and six unanswered goals by the young Eagles after falling four goals behind.

If the early signs were good, the match itself was even better with fortunes swinging by the minute as leg speed and appetites for goal outweighed any semblance of defence.

It looked like a Bomber blitz 10 minutes into the second term when a long Jeffrey Simon bomb shot the Tiwis to a 24-point lead.

But a Simon Bates goal for Wanderers against the run of play turned the quarter into a blue and gold wave as Cooper, John Tipiloura, Joel Jeffrey, Dray Thompson and Matthew Motlop found the goals.

Thompson, the Darwin Olympic soccer star, produced his own goal-of-the-year application with a superb goal from in front of the light tower next to the St Mary’s clubhouse.

The main problem for the Tiwis was a lack of space, something that had been created by a disciplined Wanderers side by their ability to get numbers around the ball.

That discipline continued into the all-important third quarter when the Eagles won the term by a single point to take a two-goal lead into the final 25 minutes.

They continued to play a zonal defence rather than man-on-man and it hurt the free flowing Tiwis, who could not find the room they needed to produce their trademark long runs through the middle and down the wing.

WANDERERS 1.3 7.5 9.8 10.12 (72)

TIWI BOMBERS 4.3 5.6 7.8 8.10 (58)

GOALS — Wanderers: S Bates 2 M Cooper 2 J Jeffrey 2 M Motlop D Thompson J Tipiloura D Weetra. Tiwis: J Best 2 G Cunningham 2 R Tungatalum J Monigatti J Simon D Munkara.

BEST — Wanderers: D Weetra M Cooper J Erlandson N Sedgwick M Totham. Tiwis: B Palipuaminni C Jones J Puruntatameri M Dunn J Best.