NTFL 2024-25 live stream: Watch Darwin Buffaloes vs Wanderers in Round 14
Darwin Buffaloes produced their best performance of the year to finally win their first game of the season and end Wanderers’ finals chances. Watch the full match REPLAY here.
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At long last the Darwin Buffaloes have broken their 2024-25 NTFL losing run following a passionate performance against Wanderers, in a match where their leaders stood up.
The Double Blues have endured a season to forget losing to all comers following a pre-season of coaching turmoil.
On paper it seemed as if the situation would have repeated considering Wanderers run of form up to the Christmas break where they threatened to push to finals.
However, the Buffaloes turned it on after a scrappy opening quarter against a Muk Muks side that was wayward in front of goal to claim the 8.7 (55) to 3.10 (28) win.
Wanderers threatened early, but their goal kicking, even off the usually trusty boots of Jak Trewin let them down when they had their foes locked down.
Trewin was sprinting towards the posts and kicked true, only to have been deemed to have run too far, leaving Brenton Motlop their only major scorer after a 12 minute dominant spell.
Buffs player-coach Phil Wills worked well in tandem with Bradley Stokes to further disrupt those efforts, and their industrious efforts would play a role all afternoon.
A Chris Williams handball found the hands of skipper Jarrod Stokes, who has put the side on his back all year, and he turned to snap a levelling goal in a typical moment of magic.
Unlike recent weeks he wasn’t left to do it all on his own with plenty of Buffaloes players stepping up and they broke the game open in their favour in the second quarter with a three goal run.
Aquel Rankine was a constant presence through the midfield stealing the ball and clearing it to the forward line where youngsters like Tyson Cronin were all too pleased to add to the goal tally.
It inspired a confidence unseen from the proud club this season, and despite the best efforts of Wanderers’ Max Johnson and Mitchel Taylor there was little stopping the Buffs pulling away.
It wasn’t until Wanderers’ Benjamin Charles was awarded a free kick early in the third quarter that they snapped the run of Buffaloes momentum, but by then they had a mountain to climb.
Hayden Brown was another who lifted through the game chopping in whether in the ruck, down back or even kicking a couple of goals to help raise the margin.
And the constant efforts of the likes of former North Melbourne player Matt Campbell kept the fire running deep into the final term where Buffs further consolidated their lead.
“There’s a lot of relief for the boys and supporters, a winless season doesn’t look good for anyone so to get that one on the board is great,” Brown said.
“We knew we just had to keep working at it, everyone kept turning up to training and putting in the work so we felt it was only a matter of time, but it’s good to finally get it done.
“It’s everything to us, we all started tearing up in the rooms it meant so much to get it done, everyone put in for this one.
“This was a whole team effort, everyone put their head over the ball when they needed to and just kept to the game plan.
“Now it’s about building to next year and making sure we finish this season in the right way, it was always going to be hard losing a coach two weeks before but Phil came in and it’s starting to come together.”
Score:
Buffaloes: 1.1 4.3 6.3 8.7 (55)
Wanderers 1.3 1.5 2.8 3.10 (28)
Goals:
Buffaloes:
Hayden Brown 2, Paul Campbell, Tyson Cronin, Matt Fogarty, Xavier Hampton, Zander Nash, Jarrod Stokes
Wanderers:
Benjamin Charles, Keelan Fejo, Brenton Motlop
Best:
Buffaloes:
Hayden Brown, Matt Campbell, Jarrod Stokes, Bradley Stokes, Phil Wills
Wanderers:
Max Johnson, Jeremy Piercy, Mitchel Taylor, Riley Calvene, Keelan Fejo
PREVIEW
Wanderers’ hopes of playing finals hold on by the barest of margins, but a game against a battling Darwin Buffaloes side could set them a platform for their run home.
The NT News and KommunityTV will stream every moment of their NTFL clash from 4.30pm on Saturday.
The Muk Muks had won three of their last five games heading into the Christmas break to give them a shot at playing in the knockouts.
However, those chances have been all but dashed since the break with a draw to Palmerston and a heavy defeat against the Tiwi Bombers leaving them 10 points behind with just four games remaining.
There’s plenty of talent in this Wanderers group including Josh Muraca, who was their lone goal scorer against Tiwi, but this is a side that can’t afford anymore setbacks.
Meanwhile, the Buffaloes are still hunting their first win of the season and with time well and truly running out they need to throw all they have into every fixture.
The Double Blues have been best served by Jarrod Stokes and Tom Simpson amid a tough campaign and while other players have stepped up it hasn’t yet been enough to get over the line.
Watch the full replay at the end of the game.
The NT News and AFL Northern Territory have come together in a partnership to live stream both the men’s and women’s Premier League games for this TIO NTFL season.
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Originally published as NTFL 2024-25 live stream: Watch Darwin Buffaloes vs Wanderers in Round 14
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