Article by Grey Morris
Southern Districts and Waratah will meet in the 2022/23 TIO NTFL Men's Premier League Grand Final after Districts beat St Mary's by 23 points in Saturday night's preliminary final.
The Crocodiles showed why they finished six points clear of everyone else in the home and away season by leading all night against the highly-rated Saints.
Skipper Dean Staunton through the midfield, ruckman Matthew Dennis, defender Frazer Driscoll, and club best and fairest winner Luke Smith steered Districts to their first MPL grand final since 2017-18 when they narrowly beat the Darwin Buffaloes.
This Districts side was a different one from the sleepy 22 players brushed aside by Waratah seven days previously.
The hunting in packs, hardness at contests, kicking to position, and creative handball that saw them win 13 of their 16 minor round games were all back in town.
A three-goal to one first quarter where Dennis, Jake McQueen and Staunton were prominent, fired some early warning shots across the front end of the Green Machine.
That trend continued for the majority of the match, St Mary's relying on too much from too few as the Crocodiles ran themselves into form and next week's grand final.
Their coach Shannon Rusca has the NTFL's most southern team in the Big Dance again and he wants them to show the same endeavour and smart ball use they showed against the Saints.
"It was a top-quality performance from a side that had done all the right things until last week's final against Waratah,'' Rusca said.
"They hunted as a group all year and just had to find that again. When they did, they did it very well as the scoreboard shows.
"Our captain was fantastic in his return by doing a fantastic job on Dylan Landt and propelling a lot of football forward for us at the same time.''
Rusca also heaped praise on fullback Driscoll for his close-checking work on Dennis Dunn medallist Jackson Calder and Dennis who rucked all night against Saints pair Brandyn Grenfell and Braxton AhMat.
St Mary's were left to reflect on a season that began with a big loss to Waratah in Round 1 before moving into overdrive with the first semi-final win over Nightcliff.
Coach Anthony Vallejo said the fumbling loss and lack of penetration with his players' kicking was a disappointing way to end the season.
"I know Districts brought a lot of pressure at the ball with them and we just couldn't match them, unfortunately,'' he added.
But he did find some positives in the number of emerging players in the side that have come through the club's under-18s.
"We had eight young blokes in the side that have come from our junior program, so I think the future is bright at St Mary's,'' he said.
