Thrilling encounter between Brothers and Dragons ends in a bittersweet draw for both sides

DARWIN Brothers and Nightcliff Dragons played out another chapter in their fierce rivalry which ended in a bittersweet 26-26 draw in the NRL NT A-grade premiership

Nightcliff’s David Paull receives heavy attention from the Brothers’ defence during their drawn NRL NT clash. Picture: Glenn Campbell

DARWIN Brothers and Nightcliff Dragons ended another chapter in their fierce rivalry in a bitter 26-26 draw to see out Round 3 of the NRL NT A-grade premiership.

The Dragons opened the scoring two minutes into the encounter through Kurt Parriman, though a missed conversion allowed Brothers to take the lead after returning the favour.

The Brethren scored a second soon after through Jonas Niki, but it was strength in defence that kept them ahead for the remainder of the opening half.

A Nightcliff try either side of halftime saw the Dragons work their way back into the battle. The second half opened up but neither side was able to shake the other for long enough to maintain the advantage.

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The game looked as if it had swung in Brothers’ favour after a 60m try from young fullback Isacc Kurnoth, who had a big game alongside fellow under-18 player Kenny O’Connor.

But an intercept with three minutes left saw Scott Thurling cross for Dragons and ensure they would not suffer a loss against their major rivals.

Dragons coach Reg Rose was relieved to get away with the draw after a disjointed effort from his squad.

“I think we’re lucky. We finished with some injuries,” Rose told the NT News.

“One positive was our ball control was improved but I’m happy with that as it could have been a lot worse.

“We’re a footy side that stuck to our guns and competed for the whole 80 minutes but there is still a lot to improve on.”

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Brothers’ coach Leon Cleal was a little more disappointed with the draw, feeling his side could have closed the game at the death.

“We probably played one of our worse games in two years,” Cleal said.

“We just made too many errors. We had an opportunity to win that game at the end and close it out but we never took that chance.

“We will learn from that. We’re still an inexperienced side and we will be looking to get rid of those errors.”