Northern Sharks beat Darwin Brothers in NRL NT Round 9
Northern Sharks’ winning run survived a tough and tight encounter with Darwin Brothers in a match where four players got sent off. See all the latest action from the NRL NT.
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Northern Sharks survived a tough battle against Darwin Brothers in a fierce NRL NT match during which four players were sent off.
Brothers were the last team to get the win against the red-hot Sharks, beating them 34-6 in Round 4 and came out looking to make a statement once again.
But Sharks, despite having three players sent off, did enough to secure the 34-22 win bringing their winning run to five matches.
Brothers had plenty of the ball early on and put the pressure on Sharks defence to the test but their efforts were largely repelled.
Instead it was Sharks with halves Brent Crisp and Mitch Burke pulling the strings who got the chance to celebrate a score first.
Their try came as Clint Chettle battered through creating an overlap for Shaquille Addo-Norris which laid the foundation for a try from Crisp.
The Brethren weren’t disheartened by the early setback with stand-in captain Aaron Pollard rallying the troops to get back on the attack.
Eventually they had their reward to with talisman Caleb Niki evading a tackle from David Munro to get a score back but just as it looked like they were back in the game they fumbled the restart.
Jayden Sneddon found option after option from dummy half as Sharks swept up the field and eventually a Burke pass found its way to Chettle on the wing sending him in for an easy try.
They weren’t done there with full back Cooper Segeyaro, who had already impressed in defence, found his way to the line after selling CJ Perkins on a show and go.
The Brethren’s big forwards Kyro Ahmat and Trent Kurnoth did drag back some metres in a move finished off by a powerful carry from Elijah Coombes to stem the tide of Sharks’ tries.
Addo Waianga became Brothers’ bane thereafter working well in tandem with Chettle and scoring off dummy half after his wing had laid the foundations.
He wasn’t done there exposing an overlap created by a Crisp cross field kick and then chasing down his own kick forward, which cruelly bounced away from Niki, to score his second try.
Sharks extended their lead on the other side of half time with Kieren Danovaro bashing through the line but tempers started to flare from there.
Brothers’ Ethan Schober went to the bin for a dangerous tackle, Crisp’s night was over for back chat and the same fate was delivered to Kurnoth and Sharks’ David Munro for a punch on.
Sharks’ lacked direction with the missing players, particularly the influential Crisp, and Brothers smelled their chance.
Perkins got some revenge managing score with a show and go of his own and Niki stepped up as well charging in from dummy half to narrow the margin further.
Just as it looked like they could come back Waianga struck again charging down the left wing and passing off at the last second to see Chettle score in the corner.
Chettle had another promising run soon after but received a send-off instead of a try after a moment of aggression injured Xavier Grant.
It left Sharks down three players with just minutes on the clock but their margin and tenacity in defence saw them through to the end.
“Big relief at the end there, it was a tough game, probably the toughest game we’ve had all year,” Burke said.
“Obviously tougher when we were down to 11 but that’s what it’s like playing Brothers, they’re a hard team and we always have respect for them.
“All positions go out of the book when you’re down that many, you’ve just got to work for your mate, close the gate and hope for the best and really work hard to get the ball back.
“This run has all come to the little things, we’ve come back a lot fitter, we’re getting some good combinations together and that aggression and heart is back.”
Meanwhile, Litchfield Bears remain on top after demolishing Nightcliff 70-0 with Corey Gregory, Dillan Vanderburg, Cameron Cory and Trent Wedding all among the multi-try scorers.
Palmerston also pulled off a convincing win beating South Darwin 58-4 with Jarrad Lane scoring three tries while Blake Fletcher had a brace.
In the women’s competition Brothers continued their undefeated run beating Sharks 40-0 with Latoniya Norris and Jacinda Summers both getting multiple tries.
Palmerston’s Kagui Gimini scored a brace as well beating the Rabbitohs 34-4 at Warren Park securing the club a secure second place on the league ladder.
Brothers to go back to basics ahead of NRL NT tie with Sharks
A somewhat depleted Darwin Brothers are hoping to turn their recent fortunes around with a back to basics approach ahead of their match-up with the red hot Northern Sharks.
The Brethren absolutely dominated Sharks in their last NRL NT meeting controlling the ball and scoring more than one freakish try on their way to a 34-6 victory.
However, Brothers have been off the boil since dropping games to Litchfield and Palmerston, while coach Leon Cleal said their 40-10 win over South Darwin was “uninspiring”.
Meanwhile, the Sharks fortunes have gone in the opposite direction beating Palmerston and Nightcliff by a collective score of 136-0 before defeating table toppers Litchfield.
Cleal also said it hadn’t helped they’ve been missing key players including captain Isaac Seden-Kurnoth (work), his halves partner Jonas Niki (injury) and hooker Danny Warren (injury).
“We just haven’t clicked in the past few weeks even in our win against Souths,” he said.
“We were very robotic and uninspiring, there were too many errors, and that has come down to overcomplicating our game rather than keeping it simple.
“What worked very well for us in the early part of the year was our simple style of play whereas now we’ve overcomplicated things thinking the game would come to us instead of us taking control.
“In training it’s been about breaking this down simply and being honest with each other and saying we’re not doing what we need to do and we need to fix it.”
Cleal will unleash a more untested halves pairing of Christian Meo and CJ Perkins against Sharks, with his captain out of the game.
And it will come as a tall order for the pair who will find themselves up against the most experienced pairing in the league of Brent Crisp and Mitch Burke.
Despite missing players the Brethren aren’t without some of their best with Caleb Niki perhaps the best player in the league in 2023.
Trent Kurnoth is also one expected to step up, while Aaron Pollard takes over the captaincy, a position he last held in Brothers 2020 premiership victory.
But for Brothers it will be a matter of taking on the Sharks’ bigger bodies with Adam Hall and Jacob McCarthy particularly lethal once they get going.
“If we can control 50-55 per cent of the ball I believe we’re still good enough to win the game but we start giving them more their fair share of the footy we’re for a hard slog,” Cleal said.
“We’re still confident we can win the game and showed we can last time, but it all comes down to if the personnel we have this time can play similar to that.
“It was all about controlling and winning the ruck, we didn’t make a lot of errors that night and so had a lot of the football in our hands.
“But Sharks are great, they’re a side that once they get their hands on the football are really, really hard to stop.
“If you can make them defend set after set with their big bodies it starts to tell at the back end of the game, but if you can’t make them work they will punish you.”
Meanwhile, Litchfield Bears will host the Nightcliff Dragons at Webber Park while Palmerston make their way to Warren Park for a meeting with South Darwin Rabbitohs.
All the big talking points from Round 8 of the NRL NT
There were plenty of enthralling stories to come out of NRL NT Round 8 including the end of an undefeated run and a women’s side’s impressive win.
In the men’s competition Brothers, Palmerston and the Sharks came out on top with important wins, with all three clubs also picking up victories on the women’s side of the draw.
Here are all the major talking points from Round 8.
Sharks men the form side of the comp
It’s impossible to call the Sharks anything but the form team of the comp now after the team snapped Litchfield’s unbeaten run.
That wasn’t the case just five weeks ago when fitness and direction let them down in their first face-offs against the Bears and then Brothers the week after.
Sharks have been the benchmark side for the past two years and those losses were perhaps the wake-up call they needed coming into the season underdone.
Since then they left both reigning premiers Palmerston and Nightcliff scoreless so they were red hot coming into their second match against the Bears.
And it was a match they more than turned up for with their big forwards including Jacob McCarthy and Adam Hall bullying Litchfield out of the game.
Those big forwards have become a fundamental part of the Sharks’ gameplay breaking defences wide open for their backs to run through, unless they choose to run in a try themselves.
Meanwhile, Mitch Burke and Brent Crisp have become the best halves pairing in the league consistently able to pick the right option in attack and on defence.
The Sharks next match comes against Brothers, who managed to win 34-6 last time the sides met.
However, just as the Sharks have developed into a powerhouse since then, Brothers have struggled against the top sides dropping matches to both Litchfield and Palmerston.
Sharks women impressing
The Sharks’ women have quietly transformed into one of the sides to watch after climbing into third place with a handy win over Litchfield.
Mirroring the men, the women’s side ran out to an early first half lead, building a strong score through the efforts of Tamara Madzika and Ayesha Kay.
The Bears came back in the second half with the past two Gaynor Maggs medallists Rhiannon Fecht and Kiyanah Toy both getting tries.
But the Sharks did just enough to hold off their rivals late in the piece to secure the win and put themselves within touching distance of the top two.
They will get a real measure of where they are at this weekend when they take on Darwin Brothers, who have not been beaten since the 2021 grand final.
Last time the sides met it was a narrow 18-12 win for Darwin, although several of their best players were out on rep duty at the time.
Palmerston’s depth makes the difference
Palmerston passed the 50-point mark for the first time this season as proof they’re growing their way into the season.
The victory over the Dragons was the second in a row for the reigning premiers and one which showed real signs of growth for a side who only two rounds ago lost 76-0.
The Raiders’ depth has been bolstered plenty in the intervening weeks with some big name players including Nasoni Rokobiau and Matthew Johnson making returns.
Ed Murphy and Sam Ogden also have game time now while the likes of Jacob Rainger and Tevita Kanalagi are always lethal on the attack.
The big question mark for the Raiders however is how they will perform against the top two sides in Litchfield and the Sharks now they have a performing squad.
Despite winning the grand final last year against them, Palmerston have been vulnerable whenever they’ve faced the Sharks in recent years, as the recent demolition proved.
And the Raiders’ natural forwards game is a playstyle the Sharks are very adept at themselves.
There are plenty of positive signs for the premiers coming out of the Nightcliff win but at the same time there’s a little way to go yet until they can pip the best.
Nightcliff, to its credit, had one of its better games of the season with Robbie Butcher, Stylianos Vrontos, Zak Mott and Brenton Motlop all putting in big shifts.
As a result, they were right in it for the first half before the match ran away from them in the second but when their depth plays they turn up.
Bears to take plenty from loss
Nobody ever wants to lose but as the old saying goes, you learn more from your losses than you do from your victories.
And the Bears will learn from their streak-ending defeat to the Sharks in which they were bullied off the ball at both ends.
Litchfield got sucked into the niggle during the scrappy encounter and were forced to defend against some of the more powerful forwards in the comp.
There were times, particularly early in the contest, where the Bears made scoring a little too easy, laying off tackles in a manner they hadn’t done previously in the comp.
They also found it difficult to get past the at times iron-clad defence of the 2021 premiers opting for one-up attacks.
However, whenever they got their strike runners into the game and passed through the hands or on the offload they found themselves beyond the gain line or scoring.
Despite their difficulties, they weren’t far off beating the in-form side of the competition and still remain top of the table.
Captain Trent Wedding stood tall once again leading by example in attack and often laying the foundation for his side’s best attacking moves.
Beyond the general niggle of the match there was a bit of confusion when the end-of-game whistle went while the clock still showed there were three minutes left for the Bears to score.
However, the half did go for the allotted 40 minutes with the time on screen lagging behind.
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