Nightcliff Dragons fought to last minute to notch win over resurgent South Darwin side

NIGHTCLIFF Dragons were made to fight for their last-minute 34-28 win over a resurgnt South Darwin in Round 7 of the NRL NT A-grade Premiership

David Paull stood out in his 100th game for the Nightcliff Dragons. Picture: FELICITY ELLIOTT

NIGHTCLIFF Dragons were made to fight for their last minute 34-28 win over South Darwin in Round 7 of the NRL NT A-grade Premiership.

Early tries to Nightcliff’s Tupu Tafunai and Trent Papa would have convinced most that a big score was on the line.

However, Souths with a forfeit the week before and the Chico Motlop in mind had come to play and made sure they gave their Dragons opponents a proper test.

An early try to Tian Nichols and a double for Nasoni Rokobiau showed the Bunnies had come to play and they weren’t letting up also scoring through Ealon Ronsen and Kanae Gomini.

MORE NT SPORT STORIES

Dragons, Bunnies eye Chico Motlop Shield

Clarke named youngest ever Brothers captain at 19

Triple Eric Johnston Medal treat for star duo

The efforts of Dragons captain David Paull on his 100th game for the side and newcomer Ethan Muller kept their side in the contest that at one point looked like it may get away from them.

The hard yards they won their side allowed standout centre Tim Muhammad the opportunity to score a double at the death with Paull knocking over the final conversion.

Papa and Matt Kirwan also managed individual braces for Nightcliff helping the side retain the all-important Shield.

Captain David Paull was overjoyed to pull off a win on his 100th match for the side despite the scrappiness of the game.

“We made it pretty hard for ourselves at times but to get away with the win on this special occasion is great,” Paull told the NT News.

“The will to not to give up was the big for us. We had a choice at half-time to drop our heads and roll over but we chose not to and got over the line.

“It’s hard to put 100 A-grade games into words. I started playing with Nightcliff when I was nine-years-old and to share this special moment with the club is probably one of the greatest feelings of my life.”

Coach Reg Rose echoed his captain’s sentiments feeling proud of his side sides guts despite the scrappiness of the encounter.

LIMITED TIME: Discounted NT News subscription offer: $1 a week for the first 12 weeks

“Scrappy again from us as we’re not holding the football consistently,” Rose said.

“However, I thought Souths were outstanding to pull together after a forfeit and produce that effort was awesome which will add a lot to the competition.

“We just had to prove that we wanted it more and we did that near the end executing where we needed to and finishing off our chances.”