36 NT NEWS. Monday, January 27, 2014. www.ntnews.com.au

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NTFL SCOREBOARD

ROUND15NIGHTCLIFF 3.2 7.4 9.8 12.14 (86)TIWI BOMBERS 3.2 5.3 10.4 13.7 (85)

GOALS—Nightcliff:BChambers 2 T Coates 2 B Parfitt S GuilhausMRoweT Stribling J Peris DDzufer AHale T Baust. Tiwis:AVallejo 4 GCunningham2 J Tipuamantamirri 2 R Tungatalum2AWonaeamirri JMunkara JPMunkara.BEST—Nightcliff:DDzufer T Grima TCoatesWKossack T Stribling.Tiwis:R TungatalumAWonaeamirri J Tipuamantamirri JPMunkaraNMcElwee.Umpires:MervMonty JayGilden Jared Collins0

STMARYS 2.6 8.11 13.16 18.20 (128)DARWIN 3.1 3.3 3.5 6.7 (43)

GOALS—StMarys: J VanUnen 5 PMacFarlane 3WRioli 3 SMcKenzie 2L Larson KBourkeHKerinaiua J Ilett J Heath.Darwin:A Lonergan 2MPerry KHolt-Tubbs.BEST—StMarys:MMcLean J VanUnen JWilson PMacFarlane JAnstess.Darwin:A LonerganA Johnson P Liddle Z Stephenson.Umpires:Wally Gallio AshleyManicarosNathanHall

STHNDISTRICTS 5.2 7.4 7.6 13.7 (85)PALMERSTON 3.0 3.3 4.5 7.9 (51)

GOALS—S’Districts: T Taylor 7 C Stasimowsky 2 DCampbell J Roe-DugganR TamblingMCannard.Palmerston:KHunter 2 J Shannahan JJeffreyWBerto BGrant AlwynDavey.BEST—S’Districts:R Tambling T Taylor S Dann J Roe-DugganAGepp.Palmerston: J Shannahan P Liddle T Summerhayes KHunter ALonergan.Umpires:Aaron Bennett Ross Ebbott Roly Ostler

WANDERERS 2.0 7.4 9.8 14.11 (95)WARATAHS 5.1 6.4 11.6 13.9 (87)

GOALS—Wanderers:MarlonMotlop 3 CDunne 3 S Thompson 2AWeetra 2 J Cubillo S Arthur JWilson J Erlandson.Waratahs: LHarder 5 PHeenan 2 JWray 2 RCocks C Thiel J Schaper J Farrell.BEST—Wanderers:MarlonMotlop Josh Cubillo BMcLeanAli BondAWeetra.Waratahs: LHarder PHeenanAAnkers J Farrell JWrayUmpires:MarkNoonan Josh James BrianWalters.

LADDERTEAM P W L D F A % PtsSTMARYS 14 14 0 0 1718 837 205.2 56WANDERERS 14 12 2 0 1308 994 173.1 48STHNDISTRICTS 14 8 5 1 1258 1041 120.8 34NIGHTCLIFF 14 8 6 0 1322 1169 113.1 32WARATAHS 14 6 7 0 1044 1198 87.1 24TIWI BOMBERS 14 4 9 1 1382 1527 90.5 18PALMERSTON 14 4 10 0 1006 1411 71.3 16BUFFALOES 14 2 12 0 879 1515 56.9 8

NEXTWEEKRound 16—Saturday, February 1: SthnDistricts vWanderers at TIOStadium, 3.15pm; Nightcliff vWaratahs at TIO Stadium, 5.30pm;Darwin v Palmerston at TIO Stadium, 7.45pm. Sunday, February 2:Tiwi Bombers v StMarys at Bathurst Island, 3pm.

Waratahs’ Luke Harder takes a mark in the match against Wanderers at Gardens Oval Picture: JUSTIN SANSON

Wanderers intough victoryNTFL

ByGREYMORRIS

Weworked ourway

back to nullify the

margin and come

awaywith awin,

whichwas good

WANDERERS won a tough,no-nonsense NTFL matchyesterday when they beatWaratahs by eight points atthe Gardens Oval.

The 14.11 (95) to 13.9 (87)win also meant that the Eag-les won the Foundation Cupfor the eighth time in veteranShane Thompson’s 150thgame in his beloved blue andgold jumper.

It all looked a lot differentin the first term when Tahskicked the first five goals ofthe match.

Spearhead Luke Harder,Paddy Heenan and Tim Mos-quito ran rampant in the first20 minutes as Tahs made lightof their underdog tag.

But the strength of Wan-derers at stoppages and poiseof Marlon Motlop and JoshCubillo when in possession ofthe ball wore Tahs down.

The Eagles kicked eight ofthe next nine goals after Tahs’bright start and looked in to-tal control when Motlop kick-

ed a long goal at the start ofthe third term.

But some undisciplinedacts by the Eagles, where theygave free kicks away behindthe play, let Tahs back intothe game.

Waratahs kicked five goalsto two to grab a 10-point leadat the last change and seem-ingly all the momentum.

‘‘Waratahs set the standardat times which was a bit dis-appointing from our end,’’Motlop said.

‘‘But we worked our wayback to nullify the marginand come away with a win,which was good.’’

Motlop, who won theFoundation Medal for hisclub, has moved back to Ade-laide after three seasons inthe WAFL with Swan Dis-tricts and Peel Thunder.

Cubillo showed his import-ance to Wanderers with abulldozing second half of foot-ball, highlighted by a superbgoal when he broke through apack in the last quarter.

And returning Eagles,Bobby McCallum in the ruckand the Maningrida Marvel,Jerry Wilson, showed theywill be better for the run.

Harder, easily Tahs’ best onthe day, said his side wouldgain a lot of confidence fromthe loss.

‘‘The pressure was prettyintense out there,’’ he said.

‘‘Wanderers are like StMarys and Nightcliff, thereare a lot of class acts and olderheads in their sides.

‘‘But our first and thirdquarters were very good.We’ve got a lot of up-and-coming talent and that meanssome exciting times at thefooty club.’’

SCORESRd 16BRISBANEROAR2 (Devante Clut50m, Luke Brattan 87m) dWELLINGTONPHOENIX 1 (SteinHuysegems 36m) at SuncorpStadium. Crowd: 13,889.Referee:Chris Beath.ADELAIDEUNITED 2 (Bruce Djite22m, Ryan Griffiths 90m) drewMELBOURNEHEART2 (HarryKewell 61m pen, Patrick Kisnorbo79m) at Coopers Stadium. Crowd:11,100.Referee: Kris Griffiths-Jones.CENTRAL COASTMARINERS 3(Anthony Caceres 13m, DanielMcBreen 32m, Matt Simon 45+3m)dNEWCASTLE JETS0 atBluetongue Stadium. Crowd:10,920.Referee: Jarred Gillett.SYDNEY FC 5 (Ranko Despotovic11m, Alessandro Del Piero 20mpen, 54m, Sebastian Ryall 25m,Nick Carle 87m) dMELBOURNEVICTORY0 at Etihad Stadium.Crowd: 24,354.Referee: BenWilliams.WESTERNSYDNEYWANDERERS 3 (BrendonSantalab 28m, AaronMooy 35m,Mark Bridge 71m pen) dPERTHGLORY 1 (Shane Smeltz 56m) atPirtek Stadium. Crowd: 14,111.Referee: Strebre Delovski.

LADDER: Brisbane Roar 34;Western SydneyWanderers 29:Central Coast Mariners 27;Melbourne Victory 23; Sydney FC22; Adelaide United 21; Perth Glory20; Newcastle Jets 19; WellingtonPhoenix 17; Melbourne Heart 9

LEADINGGOALSCORERS: 8:Stein Huysegems (Wellington); 7:James Troisi (Victory), AlessandroDel Piero (Sydney);6: BesartBerisha (Brisbane), Adam Taggart(Newcastle); 5: Ranko Despotovic(Sydney), Jeronimo Neumann(Adelaide), Tomi Juric (WesternSydney);4: Guilherme Finkler(Victory), Fabio Ferreira (Adelaide),Dimitri Petratos (Brisbane), MarkBridge (Western Sydney), ArchieThompson (Victory), BrendonSantalab (Western Sydney), DavidWilliams (Melbourne Heart), IvanFranjic (Brisbane).

Muscatfired upSOCCER

A-LEAGUE

MELBOURNE Victorycoach Kevin Muscat haspromised a brutal post-mortem after Sydney FChanded them their worst-ever defeat at home in theteams’ now-traditionalAustralia Day match.

The result yesterdaywas the Victory’s second5-0 A-League thrashing ina week, and has put Mus-cat under pressure for thefirst time in his mana-gerial career.

He was adamant no onewould be spared in thesearch for answers.

‘‘To say it’s unaccept-able is an understate-ment,’’ he said.

‘‘It was bordering on em-barrassing here in front ofour own fans . . . we’ve gotto get back to AAMI Parkand find out who reallywants to play and repre-sent this football club.’’

Alessandro Del Piero’sdouble, along with goals toRanko Despotovic, Sebas-tian Ryall and Nick Carlewere responsible for theVictory’s humiliation.

Central Coast gave Clay-ton Zane a tough introduc-tion to A-League manage-ment with a 3-0 win inGosford that took the Mar-iners to second place.

First-half goals fromDaniel McBreen, Matt Si-mon and Anthony Caceresearned the Mariners a finewin in the F3 derby.

Western Sydney havequashed any talk of anA-League form slump witha dominant 3-1 win overPerth at Pirtek Stadium.

London bound with Motlop in knee-d of world’s bestAFL

EXCITING Geelong forwardSteven Motlop will fly to Lon-don for treatment on his in-jured knee.

The Cats have resorted tothe move after Motlop’s kneefailed to respond to treatmentfor tendonitis that has ham-

pered his pre-season training.News Corp revealed last

week Motlop was on light dut-ies after summer rest failed toease the inflammation.

Motlop carried the injuryfor much of last season.

The news comes just twodays after Cats skipper JoelSelwood had foot surgery that

is set to sideline him for twoto three weeks.

But Geelong head of sportsscience and medicine PeterStanton has not given up onMotlop playing against Ade-laide in Round 1.

‘‘We are sending Steven towho we believe is the world’sbest knee tendon doctor in

London,’’ Stanton told theCats website.

‘‘We had hoped that bymanaging Steven’s workloadhe could overcome the prob-lem but it isn’t progressing aswe would have liked.’’

‘‘Steven will commence aprogram once he returnsfrom London with the intent-

ion to increase his workloadin the lead-up to the season.’’

Motlop had a breakoutseason in 2013, kicking 44goals and being named in theAll-Australian squad.

Geelong will be up againstCollingwood in the openingNAB Challenge game on Feb-ruary 12 at Simonds Stadium.