Nightcliff confident it can cover the loss of several big names over the offseason
Nightcliff are well equipped to handle the “very unique” situation of tackling a largely unknown Men’s Premier League debutant following a mini exodus over the offseason.
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Nightcliff are well prepared for the “very unique” situation of tackling a new team with little NTFL experience despite the loss of a few stars, coach Chris Baksh says.
Last season’s preliminary finalists will take on PINT at home in Round 1 of the season, with the Greenants making their debut in Men’s Premier League after promotion — albeit with a list containing little, recent experience in the Top End’s top flight.
PINT’s first game includes former Nightcliff player Huw Spring, who last played at the top level in 2019, plus Brodie Motlop, who played four games for Wanderers in 2021-22 in Premier League, and Lewis George of Waratah (three games).
“It’s very unique, not knowing their list, game structure or plan,” Baksh told the NT News.
“But on the other hand it’s exciting and we can just focus on us as well.”
There have been a few big changes at Nightcliff Oval during the off-season, with the Tigers losing forwards Kyle Emery (St Mary’s) and Liam Holt-Fitz (Darwin Buffaloes) while premiership captain Phil Wills and Kaine Riley have also departed, to Palmerston and Buffaloes respectively.
And former Tiger and Nichols medallist Dom Brew will also turn out in the Double Blue colours after not playing in the Top End last season.
However, Baksh was philosophical about those departures.
“There’s a couple of reasons, I always say a freshen up is as good as a holiday for some of them,” Baksh said, who will coach South Cairns Cutters in the 2023 season in AFL Cairns.
“It doesn’t faze me, if you don’t want to be within the club, that’s fine, all the best.
“I feel we’ve got a pretty good squad together.
“The guys who left, were guys that needed to leave, to some extent.”
Baksh was confident the Tigers would cover for the loss of Emery, who slotted 30 majors during the regular season and he expected to be a fly in fly out player from Adelaide.
He said South Adelaide’s Sam Overall (six goals in 13 games in 2022), John Butcher, Trent Melville and Shaun Wilson would pick up the slack.
He was also excited to see teenagers Phoenix Joe Pool and Adrian Scott make their debuts on Saturday against PINT, who bring some X Factor and forward pressure.
PINT captain Matthew Ryan said he was “very proud” to be the main man for the club’s Premier League debut, with Alex Harvey a standout on the track from pre-season so far.
“A lot of hard work has gone into it, from a lot of people behind the scenes,” Ryan said.
He said coach Shannon Motlop had been “awesome” so far in charge, planning to play an attacking game style.
“He’s brought a lot of new ideas and energy to the group,” he said.
Wanderers welcome back chief goalkicker Ed Simpson
Wanderers’ chief goalkicker of last season Ed Simpson being based in Darwin will be a “huge” asset in 2022-23, Eagles coach Aaron Motlop says.
Motlop said his squad was coming together nicely before Round 1 against Darwin Buffaloes with reigning best and fairest winner Daniel Weetra and Nichols medallist Beau O’Connell putting in strong preseasons while Simpson (38 majors from nine games last season) returns.
Simpson, a WA product, had his last season curtailed by Covid restrictions.
“We’re pretty excited with where our list sits,” Motlop said, adding that defender Mitchel Taylor had been named as co-captain alongside Braedon McLean.
“(Simpson) means a lot to our club. To be able to get an avenue towards goal.
“He averaged four or five goals last year per game, but that doesn’t include the contests that he created for Keelan Fejo, Jerome Motlop and Marcus Totham to hit the scoreboard.
“Having him back for the season, and living here to be able to train with us ... it’s going to be huge for us.”
He also said cousin and former AFL goal kicker Steven Motlop was excited to be pulling on the Eagles jumper for the first time since his teenage years.
“It’s been a long time coming from him,” Motlop said.
“He’s got a huge family connection at the club. It obviously means a lot to him.”
Meanwhile, Wanderers defensive ace and AFL draft hopeful Lloyd Johnson may have played his last game for the Eagles.
The teenage sensation had a brilliant debut season in Men’s Premier League in 2021-22, forming a strong quartet with Taylor, McLean and Brodie Newman down back while winning the NT News Rising Star award.
Motlop said it was likely he would not have the teenager this year as he was a “draft hopeful”.
“He’s got a manager now who’s acting in his best interests,” Motlop said.
“We know we’d love to have him playing at this time of the year, but we know he’s got some bigger things, some bigger goals to achieve.
“It’s just the reality.
“We’ve seen it with guys like Brandan Parfitt and Jed Anderson ... they’ve got to sacrifice their NTFL clubs sometimes to get to where they want to go.”
He also confirmed John and Stanley Tipiloura had returned to the Tiwi Islands to play with the Bombers.
“It was only a matter of time really for them to go back and play for the Bombers,” he said.
“That’s their home club, their family club, and they want to make that club strong again.”
Jai Jeffrey and Ronald Fejo Jr have also moved to Southern Districts.
Skipper McLean also said Totham, who finished third in the Nichols Medal last season, had been burning up the track and was set to take his game to new heights.
He said the club had “high aspirations” to improve on last season’s efforts, knocked out in a 64-point semi-final loss to premiers St Mary’s, and had started pre-season earlier than normal.
“We’ve had a really good, core group of guys always rocking up, so we’re all really happy with how we went this pre-season,” McLean said.
“(Simpson and Newman) we got when Covid hit a couple of years ago and didn’t expect them to keep coming back and committing.
“We’re really happy that they keep returning. They obviously have an impact on the field, but offer a massive amount off it as well.
“We’ve got high aspirations this year and with our group we have some big goals for the season ahead.”
Harley Bennell to play Round 2 of the NTFL season
Former AFL star Harley Bennell is set to play for the Tiwi Bombers from Round 2 as the club also welcomes back John Tipiloura to the Islands from Wanderers.
The Bombers are back in the NTFL after missing the second half of the season due to Covid restrictions, following 11 winless games in 2021-22.
And they will face a stern test early, taking on a recalibrated Palmerston at TIO Stadium on Saturday, who have recruited Josiah and Will Farrer, Ashton Hams and Phil Wills and welcome back Eddie Betts for a second season.
Bombers coach Brenton Toy said the club had endured a “bumpy start” to the pre-season before slowly building momentum, adding some experience through the likes of Bennell, with some youth.
That includes the recruitment of 22-year-old South Adelaide reserves player Brian Gill, through Bomber Kim Kantilla who played four senior matches at Noarlunga in 2022, in a partnership Toy is keen to strengthen.
“It will be good to forge that with South Adelaide and build on it,” he said.
Bennell, who will miss Round 1 due to his mother’s birthday, will also bring some X Factor to the team.
The Bombers will welcome back 24-year-old Mason DeWit, formerly of the Box Hill Hawks and Frankston Dolphins in the VFL, plus add Michael Coombes from Palmerston.
“I’m a little nervous having my team so settled so early in the week, it’s not what I’m used to,” Toy said with a laugh.
“It’s a bit of a different outfit (this year).
“We’re a bit younger, bit fitter, bit quicker, and maybe a bit more structured.”
However, Toy wanted to make sure his new recruits brought more to the club than just on field skills.
Bennell, for one, is expected to be heavily involved in off-field community and football programs, including Deadly Choices.
“What we’ve considered too is what they bring to the relationship,” he said.
“And how do we build on that relationship?”
Buffs shooting for finals after lean year
It has been a difficult couple of years for the Darwin Buffaloes, but some extra firepower and a renewed team focus has captain Jarrod Stokes confident of their season prospects.
Since losing the 2017-18 Men’s Premier League grand final by a single point, the Buffaloes were knocked out in three consecutive elimination finals before failing to make finals in 2021-22.
However, the side has received an injection of class in the off-season through proven quality players such as Dom Brew and Liam Holt-Fitz.
They’ve also got plenty of younger players such as Tom Clarke, Hassan Ahmat-Watkins, Isaac Sedan-Kurnoth and Tyrese Raymond with another year of footy in their legs.
Add that to the quality of Stokes, Tim Eldridge, Ben Archard and the possible return of Ryan Pendlebury and Buffs supporters may have plenty to grin about this season.
Stokes also believes after an intense 10-week block of training he has noticed a renewed buy-in from his squad mates which will have them well poised for the season ahead.
“We had a good 10 week block, everyone is fit and ready to get out there,” he said.
“You can expect the Buffaloes of old, that fast paced style of footy, but we also want to put four quarters together bringing in that fitness.
“We just need to go back to being a team, playing as a team and committing to each other and we’ve stepped towards that in the pre-season.
“Ever since the new guys have turned up they’ve set the standard in training, so I think they will bring that something that we’ve been missing.
“We’ve added some pieces to our team that will put us towards a premiership, so I think we can’t expect anything less than to make finals and once we make finals we’ll go from there.”
Their first test comes against Wanderers, a side who have enjoyed some deeper finals runs in recent years.
Reigning premier stronger than last year, skipper says
In an ominous warning to the rest of the NTFL competition, defending champions St Mary’s are coming off a bigger-than-normal pre-season, are keen for more success and boast stronger depth than this time last year.
Saints captain Nate Paredes, who played three reserves matches with North Adelaide in the SANFL during the off-season, told the NT News the squad was motivated to go back-to-back in 2022-23.
He also believed the Saints had more depth this year compared to last year’s season opener.
“We were struggling to get two solid sides on the ground,” Paredes said.
“But, that doesn’t mean you’re going to win, you’ve got to turn up on the day and play hard.”
Paredes expected Nigel Lockyer Jr – who kicked 20 goals from five games last season – to return after a 20-game stint with the Roosters in 2022, while adding Nightcliff sharp shooter Kyle Emery.
However, they lose premiership defender Sam Holna, who has returned to Queensland.
Paredes said the Saints were keen to hand Waratah more heartbreak at the season opener on Friday night at Gardens Oval, after taking the flag by 35 points at TIO Stadium last season.
“We’ve developed a pretty physical and intense rivalry the last year or so, I think it’ll be very much the same,” he said.
Coach Anthony Vallejo said the Saints had endured a “pretty long pre-season” of around 12 weeks — a good month longer than normal.
“They were casually having a kick around anyway, so we thought we’d make it a bit more organised,” Vallejo said at the NTFL’s pre-season launch on Wednesday night at TIO.
He said apart from the loss of Holna, the squad had remained reasonably settled: “Everyone else is pretty much committed.”
He also wanted to get more senior games into the likes of youngsters Kobe Hodges, Ethan Bowden and Isaiah Baldock.
He didn’t expect Emery to play for the first month of the NTFL season, who had recently played in a premiership with fellow Saints forward Jackson Calder at Cairns City Lions — the club’s second flag in a row.
Calder repeated his 2021-22 grand final heroics in the AFL Cairns competition, slotting five goals in the 95-point thumping of Port Douglas Crocs.
Meanwhile, Waratah coach Ryan Ayres was not expecting any major changes to his personnel ahead of Round One, although they have picked up Geelong VFL player Scott Carlin and a few other regional recruits.
One thing is for certain though at this early stage: Tahs livewire Jayden Magro is coming into the season in white-hot form.
The mercurial left footer, who slotted 39 goals from 16 matches during the regular season – who then played for Lauderdale in the Tasmanian state league – ended up a premiership player alongside Calder and Emery, after kicking 10 goals in two finals matches.
“It’s good to have him on the track again,” Ayres said, with fellow Tah Rob Turnbull also kicking two in that monster win in Queensland.
“He’s influential, he’s contagious with the positive attitude he has.
“It’s good it rubs off and it makes our squad gel.”
Ayres admitted to a touch of nerves heading into another NTFL campaign, despite feeling adequately prepared.
“You do a lot of work over the off-season but until blokes perform you don’t know what you’re going to get,” Ayres said.
“We’ve done as much we can and we’re pretty confident. It’s a wait and see.
“Until you see the squads … you don’t know who’s got what (in round one). There’s a lot of rumours.”
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