Northern Sharks beat Litchfield while Nightcliff retained the Chico Motlop over South Darwin

NORTHERN Sharks showed plenty of guts to see out their 22-12 win over Litchfield Bears, while Nightcliff retained the Chico Motlop Shield in Round 7 of the NRL NT competition.

Sharks’ Stephen Fairweather punches on through the Litchfield defence. Picture: Che Chorley

NORTHERN Sharks showed plenty of guts to see out their 22-12 win over Litchfield Bears, while Nightcliff retained the Chico Motlop Shield in Round 7 of the NRL NT competition.

Litchfield kicked off with all of the momentum with big Dillan Vanderberg utilised plenty of his typical running game while also showing off his kicking ability.

It was captain Luke Mahood that made sure that early ascendency didn’t go to waste running a difficult line to secure the first score.

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Sharks were quick to react and showed their quality intercepting the ball in the lead up to a try of their own through Stephen Fairweather.

The side in blue continued to poke and prod at the Litchfield line but despite strong carries from the likes of Mitchell Burke, William Nicholaidis and Thomas Gunn they saw many chances wasted against the Bears defence.

That was until Damien Mick found himself five metres out and put in a smart grubber to set up Cooper Segeyaro for a try.

Neither side took much of an advantage in the opening ten minutes of the second half trading carries.

Until Bears’ Alex Marchant burst through the line knocking aside defenders on his way to a try.

Sharks were quick to react with Suliasi Tavodi showing his ball carrying skills in the lead up to a powerful bulldozing try from Kaileb Coventry.

And while Litchfield were still banging at the door late in the game it was Sharks who sealed the deal with Gunn dotting down the final try of the day.

Sharks coach PD Downes felt that though his side made things hard for themselves at times they showed plenty of guts to claim the win.

“We didn’t always make it easy for ourselves but we got the job done which is always what you want,” Downes said.

“Our discipline let us down a little bit at times. But it let us down and relieved the pressure for them which you can’t do to any side.

“But when we got ahead it was sticking to our processes and doing what we know we can do well which was really just about going back to the simple stuff.

“It was a gutsy performance by the whole team in the end, we had a couple troops go down a little early but we absorbed the pressure and got the job done.”

Nightcliff secured the important Chico Motlop shield with a 58-8 win over South Darwin with captain Brent Crisp named best on ground for the game.

The Rabbitohs started well scoring the opener but quickly the Dragons returned to the fore with Wise Sekitoga scoring three tries.

Karl Younger and hard running wing Clint Chettle both scored braces for the winning side.

Nightcliff's Clint Chettle shows off his speed and power against South Darwin. Picture: Che Chorley

Meanwhile, Darwin Brothers pulled off a confidence boosting win beating table leaders Palmerston Raiders 24-22.

The reigning premiers were down 22-10 at half time but they rallied against the 12-man Raiders, missing a sent off Tom Murphy, to take the win.