The highs and lows from Round 9 of the 2023 NRL NT season
Sharks’ red-hot run, Palmerston’s women shining and a milestone night for Litchfield capped off a big NRL NT round. Check out all the key talking points from Round 9.
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Sharks’ red-hot run, Palmerston’s women shining and a big night for Litchfield including a 100-game milestone were some of the big talking points from NRL NT Round 9.
In the men’s competition Litchfield, Sharks and Palmerston all triumphed, while Brothers and Palmerston were the winners in the women’s comp.
Here are all the major talking points from Round 9.
Are Sharks unstoppable?
Northern Sharks have cemented their place as the side to look out for the rest of the season after beating Brothers 34-22 while three players down.
The big question mark over the side is how their intensity will be judged when it comes to tough matches, as this one against Brothers was.
Brent Crisp, David Munro and Clint Chettle all received direct send-offs in the second half of the match forcing the side to finish the game with just ten men.
If similar judgments had been made earlier in the match then Sharks will find themselves facing an uphill battle, as they did in last year’s grand final loss to Palmerston.
Crisp’s send-off could have been a big turning point in the match as the side lost some of its direction and let Brothers back into the contest.
But if discipline is the big worry for a side targeting success then Sharks are in a more than pleasing position at the moment.
Sharks’ defence has been solid over the past few weeks and their big bodies can bulldoze their way through just about any side.
The main goal now would be to keep building, they’ve won five matches in a row in convincing fashion, but they could run into the evergreen pitfall of peaking too soon.
They get a break now ahead of the final round of regular season games, as long as they maintain fitness through that period they should track well.
Do Brothers have the answer to Sharks?
Despite their recent loss, the Brethren seem to have formula to beating the red-hot Sharks, who have been the benchmark team for the past two and a half seasons.
And this goes back to 2021, the year Sharks won the premiership, where in each of their three matches Brothers came out on top.
The razzle dazzle Brothers picked up the trend again in Round 4 of this season soundly beating the Sharks 34-6.
And even in defeat in Round 9 they looked like the side most able to worry the Sharks, getting under their skin and exposing some gaps around the ruck.
The Brethren have never been known for their size, but do know how to get into the niggle and make their opposition work for every metre.
And while Sharks lost three, Brothers were also down Trent Kurnoth for the majority of the second half after he and David Munro came to blows.
Brothers were also down their captain Isaac Seden-Kurnoth, his halves partner Jonas Niki and the very useful Daniel Warren, with several others also out of the side.
By equal measure you could argue Brent Crisp wasn’t around for Sharks’ loss to the Brethren, but there are clear signs Sharks are more unsettled against a full-team Brothers than anyone else.
They next meet in five rounds time and hopefully by then both sides will be fielding their full squads to give us a true account of who’s on top.
Palmo women cementing second
Much has been made of the Darwin Brothers women this season, and for good reason as they’re looking almost unbeatable at this stage.
But the Raiders women have all but secured second place on the table for themselves beating everyone but the aforementioned Brothers.
And securing the double chance should be the main goal for Palmerston, who will be hoping they can get one over their rivals come finals.
Kagui Gimini has been a standout in offence with 10 tries across the season which is joint second in those ratings, only behind Brothers’ Latoniya Norris who now has 17.
Lucy Aigea isn’t far behind with seven tries and it’s her bulldozing carries which the Raiders have relied on plenty this season.
Sharks and Bears are the potential banana peel sides for this Palmerston unit in the race for second place.
However, Raiders’ prowess in the forwards is the major separating factor between them the two chasing teams.
Under the leadership of Briannan Ross they handily beat South Darwin 34-4 in Round 9 with Rose-Maree Goninon and Samantha Lafale Selio among the try scorers.
And with one less team in the comp now it becomes even more important for teams to secure their competition points where they can across the remaining six rounds.
Nightcliff’s woes worsen
It wasn’t a night to remember at Webber Park for the Nightcliff men with their A-Grade side going down 70-0 to table-topping Litchfield.
But it wasn’t just their top side who suffered with their Reserve Grade also without a score as they were beaten 56-0, while the women didn’t play.
Two years ago the club was in a positive place winning the minor premiership in A’s, taking the title in B’s, making finals in the women’s and winning both men’s and women’s best and fairest medals.
They’ve since gone from that success to bottom of the table across the board and unable to get the numbers together for complete teams.
Several of the players who featured in the A-Grade match were forced to back up in the reserves including Trey Crowley, Lawrence Ayige and Dominic Waianga.
A further shame is that it came a week after a positive showing against Palmerston in which Robbie Butcher featured, with the two-time Frank Johnson winner not appearing this time around.
It’s a sign of the cyclical nature of the NRL NT with South Darwin, Sharks and even Litchfield, for a season, all going through mass player shortages in recent years.
Sharks are now the benchmark club, Litchfield are on top and South Darwin are also finally coming out of the wilderness.
Nightcliff won’t be enjoying this position considering they’re the league’s oldest and most successful club, but other clubs have bounced back after a lost season.
As for Litchfield, they played how they needed to and got the result to maintain their position on top of the table.
They wouldn’t have learned a lot from a win of this kind, but did get to celebrate the 100th senior match for Jarrad Burgess at home.
Burgess has racked up the matches in both the A-Grade and B-Grade, and had the honour of leading out the reserves for the last match of the night.
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