NTFL 2023-24: Watch St Mary’s v Nightcliff Tigers women’s preliminary final live stream

St Mary’s women have stormed in the NTFL grand final on the back of an emphatic prelim final win, which will have opponents Queenants on high alert. Watch how they did it in a full replay.

The St Mary’s women are into their first grand final in 11 years following a statement win against the Nightcliff Tigers born off aggressive midfield dominance.

Saints have been in the top two all year, but following a semi-final defeat to the Queenants they found themselves in a preliminary final against a fired up Nightcliff.

But the Green Machine more than lived up to the occasion, dominating from the opening quarter despite some wasteful kicking in front of goal to win 7.13 (55) to 1.2 (8).

The Saints burst out of the blocks with the in-form Paula Pavic, and the club’s best-and-fairest recipient Jo Miller, back from SANFL pre-season duties, everywhere on the ball.

And it was co-captain Billie Byers who rewarded those efforts, charging through the forward line to nail the opener, despite her side dropping a ball or two in the early exchanges.

Nightcliff captain Hannah Turnbull was a trooper all day, bringing the pressure and disrupting as many St Mary’s moves as she could from fullback.

Jo Miller in the St Mary's vs Nightcliff 2023-24 NTFL women's prelim final. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

As a result of her efforts and some wasteful kicking, the Saints were left with 1.6 for the first quarter, and had little to show from their early dominance, a constant theme of their opening terms.

Turnbull’s defensive momentum and some possessions off the back of Cassie McWilliam in the ruck had the Tigers reasonably placed at the top of the second quarter.

But the Saints’ defence, led by their other captain Emily Forshaw, and some more wayward kicking, quickly put an end to those endeavours.

Janet Baird and Nikita Long played tagging roles on the incredibly dangerous Mickayla Ward, while Sophie Berry and Maighan Fogas were also denied of possessions.

Instead, Miller kept racking up the numbers and a lucky bounce off a Byers kick sealed the second goal, disrupting a heavy run of misses at the middle sticks.

Danielle Ponter managed to break her tag at times to show why she’s an AFLW All-Australian, kicking a goal and setting up two more through her lengthy kicks.

And Kaitlyn Armstrong, last season’s leading goal scorer, made up for some marking fumbles with a couple of belters, including a 50m torpedo in the final quarter.

St Mary's celebrate a goal vs Nightcliff in the 2023-24 NTFL women's prelim final. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

“Coming off of last week where we weren’t first to the footy, we knew we had to take it up a notch and be first and bring that pressure,” Byers said.

“After that PINT game we went back to training and worked on what we needed to work on after that result.

“Getting into this grand final makes the six hour round trip from Katherine over 20 weeks all worth it and now we just need to get the job done.”

Co-captain Forshaw said the side having their sights on a first premiership since 2010 was something she couldn’t wait to experience with her side.

“The win hasn’t sunk in yet, we knew what happened last year and wanted to prove to everyone we deserve to be here,” Forshaw said.

“We had to get back on track after last week and get back to doing the things we know we’re good at and work to our strengths.

“Our first quarters haven’t been our best so we really needed to turn up from first bounce, and even though we went 1.6 we got it in the forward 50 and kept that pressure.

“To experience this with this team is phenomenal, I haven’t been in a grand final up here and it’s been a dream of mine, so we’ll put the work in and soak this all up.”

Score:

St Mary’s: 1.6 4.9 6.11 7.13 (55)

Nightcliff: 0.0 0.1 1.2 1.2 (8)

Goals:

St Mary’s:

Billie Byers 2

Danielle Ponter 2

Paula Pavic 2

Ally Trigg

Nightcliff:

Teagan McWilliam

Best:

St Mary’s:

Jo Miller

Billie Byers

Emily Forshaw

Paula Pavic

Danielle Ponter

Nightcliff:

Hannah Turnbull

Cassie McWilliam

Christy Landwehr

Ashanti Bush

Maighan Fogas

PREVIEW

St Mary’s have had the wood on Nightcliff so far this season, but with a grand final spot on the line, the Tigers know it’s now or never to break that duck.

The NT News and KommunityTV will be at TIO Stadium to stream every moment of the Women’s Premier League preliminary final from 4.30pm onSaturday.

Saints have been in the top two all season, but will have been shaken by PINT’s dominant first quarter in the last weekend’s semifinal.

It means they now have to regroup and fend off a skilled and confident Tigers unit if they’re to get another shot at the Greenants in next weekend’s decider.

There’s plenty of talent in this side, including AFLW star Danielle Ponter, as well as the likes of Janet Baird and Billie Byers, who have carried strong form into the finals series.

Can Nightcliff get the better of Saints? Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

The Saints will also be buoyed by the return of Jo Miller, who they named the club’s best and fairest, to add to their strength through the midfield.

Nightcliff have plenty of firepower of their own, including Ashanti Bush and Gypsy Schirmer, while Mickayla Ward up forward has arguably been one of the players of the finals series so far.

Hannah Turnbull and Sophie Hatzismalis are defensive specialists and will test the offensive capabilities of Saints at every opportunity.

If they can fire and convert their growing confidence built on a finals victory against Waratah, they can be a more than dangerous foe for the Green Machine.

A full replay will be posted here at the end of the game.

The NT News and AFL Northern Territory have come together in a partnership to live stream both the men’s and women’s Premier League games for this TIO NTFL season.

PREVIOUS ENCOUNTERS THIS SEASON

Round 1: St Mary’s won 6.7 (43) to 5.4 (34)

The first match of the season feels like ancient history now, but both sides confirmed their finals potential in an exciting clash.

St Mary’s built their lead through the middle half of the match, with Lexie Cagney grabbing two goals.

Jemma Iacono and Jo Miller were other standouts from the encounter. They got plenty of the ball and ripping into the contest at every chance.

Nightcliff nearly pulled off an unlikely success late on by scoring two goals to none in the final quarter, but left themselves justt too much to do.

And though the goalkicking of Mickayla Ward and defensive efforts of Hannah Turnbull weren’t quite enough to steal the win, it did confirm the side would mix it with the best all season.

Round 10:St Mary’s won 9.4 (58) to 5.2 (32)

Another match where Saints built out an early lead, scoring eight goals before halftime to put themselves in a strong position.

Grace Senior scored two goals while the AFLW tested Janet Baird played her first game back in the NTFL, this time in the green and gold of St Mary’s.

Nightcliff scored four of their five goals also before halftime.

Cassie McWilliam was the main weapon this time around with three goals to her name, while Mickayla Ward again had a presence in the forward line.

However, this was a match which quickly transitioned from a goal frenzy to a goal drought after the main break.

Finals Week 1:St Mary’s won 8.10 (58) to 3.4 (22)

The largest margin between these sides also comes in their most recent meeting, just two weeks ago in the qualifying final.

Nightcliff were the side full of running early on, with Sophie Berry and Ashanti Bush each getting their hands on plenty of ball.

However, Saints built their way into the contest off a brilliant showing from Adelaide Crows’ Danielle Ponter, who was just about everywhere for the Green Machine.

Janet Baird and Ciaralii Parnell were strong defensively, with the former collecting possessions at will in a roving role, which gave her side plenty to work with.