What we learned from Round 14 of the 2023-24 NTFL season
As one side kept its season hanging by a thread others fought to further their double chance ambitions in an exciting weekend of Top End footy. Check out the key NTFL Round 14 talking points.
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The Darwin Buffaloes kept their finals ambitions alive as the other sides fought to further their goals of a double chance in a huge Round 14 of NTFL footy.
Southern Districts, Darwin Buffaloes, Nightcliff and St Mary’s were the victors in the Men’s Premier League.
Meanwhile, Palmerston, St Mary’s, PINT and Nightcliff came out on top in the Women’s competition.
Check out all the big talking points from Round 14.
Buffaloes still hanging on by a thread
The Darwin Buffaloes’ finals hopes are hanging by a thread.
There are only four rounds left in the 2023-24 NTFL regular season, and Buffaloes sit two wins and a load of percentage behind fifth placed PINT.
The climb is not in the Double Blues favour, but a win on the weekend and a loss for the Greenants has left the door ever so slightly ajar for a comeback.
Buffaloes do have two more clear opportunities at a win playing two sides below them in coming rounds, Tiwi and Wanderers, while PINT play the top two Nightcliff and Saints.
By the end of Round 16 we could see the two on level pegging, and then the roles are reversed with Buffs playing Waratah and Saints, while PINT get Palmerston and Tiwi.
But projected results don’t matter once the real result is revealed, and the Buffaloes showed their intent against Palmerston.
The Double Blues, in the words of captain Jarrod Stokes, were ruthless against the league’s bottom side and with percentage in mind they absolutely needed to be.
Nobody showed that better than the skipper who scored six goals in one of the best final quarter individual performances in recent times.
Baxter Mensch was at his ball magnet best, and needs to be the fly-in Buffs invest their time in, while Nick Yarran was a livewire at every contest too.
Add in a strong back line and a few decent scorers and you have a side which can tough it out against the top teams.
But with PINT pushing hard too, and currently several leagues in front, this race will depend just as much on matches outside the Buffaloes control as it will on the ones they play.
Palmerston women back in finals race
The Palmerston women have climbed into the top five after a stunning come from behind victory against the Darwin Buffettes.
It’s been years since Palmerston got the better of the Double Blues outfit, who won the 2021-22 premiership, but in Round 14 broke the run with a 5.6 (36) to 4.0 (24) victory.
The Buffs led through the opening three quarters, but inaccuracies early on gave a hint Palmerston were coming, and come the final quarter they got the majors.
Centralian star Gabrielle King was a standout, as was young gun Marika Carlton and as the final quarter came their fitness won out to seize the win.
The win was made more impressive by the lack of the side’s standout player and captain Tatyana Perry, who had been banned the week before.
The result has seen the side leapfrog the Buffettes into fifth spot, two points ahead.
However, finals is far from secured, and if anything they have the death run heading into the knock out stages.
After a must-win match against Southern Districts, the Magpies have the bye followed by matches against the top two St Mary’s and PINT.
Those sort of matches do open the door for the Buffettes to come back in, or even Tiwi, who have a slightly more favourable draw.
But for now Palmerston are in, and even if they don’t finish there this is a clear sign of the progress the women’s program has made over the past few years.
After all take out an unplayed draw between them and Districts and the Magpies could have been four points further ahead.
Districts survive titanic struggle
There was no match more important than Southern Districts’ battle against PINT on the weekend, and despite trailing early the Crocs came out on top.
This was one of the decisive top five battles which will have a big bearing on the remainder of the season.
The Greenants led early off the back of some opportunist goals, and the work rate of Connor McDonald in the middle, alongside Brad Ryan and Steven Motlop down back, kept them ahead.
But Districts held on, and their own defensive sets led by Mitchell Burgess and Matthew Mazzini kept the Crocs in the contest.
It was the defensive effort which allowed Districts to finally get some opportunities of their own and eventually take the lead, which they managed to hold into the final moments.
This win places Districts a game up and in top three above both Waratah and PINT, which will come in handy seeing as they still have their bye to come.
But the Crocs will have some concern about how their offensive stars Jarrod Brander and Jonathon Ross were largely kept out of the match.
Nightcliff are still to come before the knockouts, and the Tigers have one of the best defensive units in the league, proven by their blunting of an otherwise exciting Tiwi side.
They need to unlock their attackers from these sort of problems, otherwise they could find themselves in the elimination final.
St Mary’s attacking potency
When they get going St Mary’s are perhaps the most potent attacking side in the league.
They have four players in the top 11 goal scorers to prove that.
And in a first quarter display in which captain Dylan Landt scored three goals in swirling wind they proved that, all but putting Wanderers away then and there.
Add with Charlton Offermans, Jackson Calder and Tex Korewha all also getting early goals and you would assume they would have scored north of 150 points.
Except in the middle half they slowed down and Wanderers to their credit actually managed to stifle their attacking sets.
It’s the sort of defensive attitude any side should have, and the Muk Muks are not short of good defenders, but when compared to the first quarter it looked as if Saints slowed down too.
When the game opened up in the final term they were back on top and scored nine more goals to get their win to a nice 21.13 (139) to 3.4 (22).
But the middle half, in which they scored just five goals, will have caught some attention from the other sides chasing finals.
Now this Saints side was absolutely electric when it had its wheels in motion, with Seth Harris and Nate Paredes both also playing massive games out of midfield.
And in a scare for other teams, this was not their complete first team.
Still to come back are Jack Landt, Jack Kluske, Joel Garner, Sam Glover and Kieran Parnell, all players you would say should be in the team come finals.
The biggest headache will fall on coach Anthony Vallejo on picking just who will be in his main team at that stage.
Until then the Green Machine has time to test combinations against some tough opponents such as Waratah and PINT.
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