Grand Final unrest continues as Jared Sambono pleads guilty to part in Nauiyu/Daly River riots

Violent conflict in a remote Top End community that exploded after Collingwood supporters ‘taunted’ those of the losing side in last year’s AFL Grand Final is yet to ‘reach a resolution’.

A burnt out car in Nauiyu/Daly River following rioting in April sparked by the Brisbane Lions loss to Collingwood in the 2023 AFL Grand Final. Picture: Jason Walls

Widespread rioting in the remote community of Nauiyu/Daly River has still “not reached a resolution” almost a year after the unrest was sparked by the 2023 AFL Grand Final, a court has heard.

Jared Sambono pleaded guilty in the Darwin Local Court to a string of offences including rioting and going armed with a crossbow for his part in the ongoing feud in April.

The 24-year-old also pleaded guilty to a number of other driving offences committed in July after he returned to Palmerston on bail for the earlier offending.

The court heard the violence was sparked “as a result of the AFL Grand Final in 2023” when supporters of the winning Collingwood side “chose to taunt other community members who supported the losing (Brisbane Lions) side”.

According to a tendered statement of agreed facts, “significant unrest” ensued during the rest of September and throughout October, including various incidents “each being in retaliation for the last”.

By late April this year, Sambono was part of a group of riotous, armed men who approached a woman’s house and “shot arrows and bolts towards the residents, knowing that multiple people were inside”.

“The defendant and co-offenders were yelling and swearing at people inside and making threats to fight while displaying their weapons and firing arrows and bolts with the bows,” the statement reads.

“An unknown co-offender, as part of the riots, has driven a vehicle into (the house) and set it alight, causing fire damage to the vehicles and the residence.”

Evacuees from Nauiyu/Daly River were forced to take refuge in Adelaide River after the violent gang descended on their home in April. Picture: Jason Walls

Sambono was arrested and faced court in Darwin in May where he was bailed to an address in Palmerston.

It was while he was asleep there on July 7 that a group of youths turned up in a stolen ute, which Sambono was later spotted driving with several of the youths in the tray before he was again arrested and remanded into custody.

Defence lawyer Richard Bryson told the court Sambono had “no history of violence, no history of driving offences” and “he was caught up in the moment” when the rioting started.

He said Sambono normally lived in Palmerston but had “strong family connections” to the Daly River region and often went there to hunt pigs, which was why he’d brought the crossbow in April.

Mr Bryson said his client was “not the primary offender in any of the trouble” but “he accepts that there was trouble and he was out and about in it”.

“He was actually initially asleep, he woke up, he realised that some others had helped themselves to the weapon and things had already begun, so to speak,” he said.

“He later acknowledges that he made a poor choice of … becoming involved in some of the things that were happening.”

Sambono will return to court for sentencing on September 23.