Nightcliff Dragons score at the death to win thrilling clash over Palmerston Raiders at Goodline Park

A TRY at the death saw Nightcliff Dragons win 32-28 in a thrilling top of the table clash against Palmerston Raiders in Round 8 of the 2021 NRL NT Premiership

Nightcliff's Clint Chettle showed his speed all season. Picture: Che Chorley

A TRY at the death saw Nightcliff Dragons win 32-28 in a thrilling top of the table clash against Palmerston Raiders in Round 8 of the 2021 NRL NT Premiership.

Palmerston, wearing their heritage strip celebrating the club’s 60th anniversary, were right into the action with powerful runs from Joel Turaga and Ed Murphy.

Though the Nightcliff defence held strong just as they did in attack with their first real assault on the Raiders’ defence resulting in a try for Robbie Butcher.

That kicked Raiders into gear and after several phases of driving and muscling their way up the field it was David Paull who pushed his way over the line to get Palmerston on the board.

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And it didn’t take much longer for them to build on that score with Tevita Kanalagi charging through the line to score a 50m try.

Another try came for the home side soon after through Brad Hansen putting the side on top at half time.

Shaun Wauchope burst Nightcliff back into the contest busting through the middle before passing off to Hodrick Mudu who sealed the try.

The Dragons kept their momentum this time and a chip overhead landed favorably for winger Clint Chettle to pounce on tying the score.

Raiders responded right away pushing plenty of pressure on the Nightcliff defence before Turaga bulldozed his way under the posts.

The contest continued to go back and forth with Dragons getting another slew of consecutive tries through fullback David Tabui and forward Dain Smith.

Another Turaga try levelled the scores once again, but Nightcliff kept plugging away and on the siren it was Wise Sekitoga who found the try line to win the game.

“It was awesome to seal the win at the death. The boys stuck in, we struggled a little in the first but came back strong in the second half,” Smith said.

“It came down to our discipline in the second half. We gave a lot of early penalties but we dug deep in the second and regained that discipline.

“The boys are digging in hard each week and that’s showing on the field.”

Meanwhile, Darwin Brothers improved their finals chances with a convincing 19-8 win over Northern Sharks, and Litchfield won 54-0 over South Darwin.