Friday the 7th August the NT Thunder cup was contested between the best u/14 Middle School Football teams across the Territory.
Last Friday the 7th August the NT Thunder cup was contested between the best u/14 Middle School Football teams across the Territory.
Hermannsburg School, Alice Springs High School(ASHS), Taminimin Secondary, Dripstone Middle School and St Johns College battled it out to find our two Grand Finalists.
The morning kicked off with Darwin’s St John’s College, last years winners against Alice Springs High School. It was a good opener and confirmed the death of the Berrimah line. St John’s took an early lead and maintained it for the rest of the game.
Dripstone had a first up win against a young side in Taminmin. The boys from the bush fought hard but were overpowered by a more mature Eagles outfit.
St Johns continued their first round form against Hermannsburg. The lads from the south put up a really good effort though and showed that they were a force to reckon with.
After a day of exciting and close results it came down to one of the final matches of the day to find out our finalists.
Dripstone and St John have been growing a healthy rivalry over the last couple seasons and it loomed to be a real match of the titans. Dripstone were out of the blocks early and St John’s were forced to play catch up footy. It was a very physical match and a few players stood up for Dripstone whilst St Johns lost momentum going forward. In the end it was Dripstone by one goal and confirmed them as the first team through to the decider.
It was now between St Johns and Hermannsburg to win their way into the final. After a day of impressive football Hermannsburg fell at the final hurdle however, losing to Alice Springs in what was both teams final game of the carnival. This left St John’s as the only team on 3 wins and whether they won, lost or drew to Taminmin they were safely through to the Grand Final on Saturday.
At the end of the Day each team had a best player of the carnival selected and these players were presented with their rewards. They were as follows:
St John’s-William Rioli.
Dripstone- Kyle O’Brien.
Hermannsburg-Jeffrey Pareroultja.
ASHS-Josh Abbott
Taminmin-
Northern Territory Thunder Cup - Grand Final Summary
Saturday sore the Grand Final of the NT Thunder cup. The game was a curtain raiser to the Territory Thunders final home game of the season and was eagerly awaited as their was just one goal between the two Finalists the previous day.
St John’s College v Dripstone Middle school, the rivalry reached new heights as the winning team would book themselves a birth at the Sydney National finals of the Northern States Cup.
There was a good crowd building and the atmosphere was set. The two teams arrived early and looked switched on.
When the siren finally rang out it was St Johns who got first use of the ball. A quick peace of play from the back half sore St John’s run in numbers and kick truly inside 50 and the first goal rolled over the score board.
St Johns continued their hard attack on the ball and individual pieces of magic from William Rioli and Leeson Dickson sore St John extend the lead to a few goals at the first break.
It was much of the same for the remaining 3 quarters. Dripstone tried hard but St Johns were running free and their use of the ball was fantastic. In the end St Johns piled on 4 consecutive goals and when the final siren rang out it was 9.5.59 to 2.2.14.
Well done to both teams and Congratulations to St John’s who will now represent the Territory in Sydney later this year. Congratulations to Leeson Dickson also who was named man of the match and received the match ball.