Written by Grey Morris for AFL Northern Territory
Big wins by Southern Districts, Waratah, and St Mary's highlighted a one-sided Round 5 of the 2023/24 TIO NTFL's Men's Premier League.
Districts beat long-time rival Palmerston by 131 points at Norbuilt Oval, Waratah bounced back from a narrow loss to St Mary's and PINT by thrashing Wanderers by 132 points, and a slick St Mary's ran away from a disappointing PINT at DXC Arena.
Elsewhere, the Darwin Buffaloes retained their unbeaten start to the season with an authoritative six-goal win over the Tiwi Bombers at TIO Stadium.
St Mary's youngster Seth Harris pinpointed his side's fast movement of the football as the main ingredient in the Green Machine's clinical 87-point dismantling of PINT in Friday night's game.
"It was good fast footy, that's how we want to play, to be on the move, that sort of thing,'' Round 2 Rising Star nominee Harris said after the Saints' 20.6 (126) to 5.9 (39) win.
"We wanted to move the ball quickly because we knew they were a bit slow, that's what we did and it's why we won.''
Midfield trio Joel Garner, Nathaniel Paredes, and Nichols medallist Dylan Landt lit up DXC arena on a night where eight players kicked goals for the 33-time TIO NTFL premiers.
Southern Districts coach Shannon Rusca was full of praise for his backline players after the Crocodiles consumed 22 Magpies on the wide open spaces of Norbuilt Oval.
Districts only allowed two goals to get past them in the first three quarters on the way to a percentage-boosting 24.24 (158) to 4.3 (27) win over Palmerston.
"I was really happy with the win, I thought our defensive efforts were unbelievable where Palmerston kicked a couple of late ones after only kicking two to the start of the last quarter,'' Rusca said.
"We're really pleased with our defensive work and offensive run which starts from the back of our defence, so all around we're pretty happy.''
Ballarat recruit Matt Johnston was outstanding across half back and through the middle for Districts, while Jed Anderson's work around the ball and Roy George up front were other big factors in the win.
The Darwin Buffaloes set up their win over the Tiwi Bombers with a six-goal to-two first term and maintained that form through to the final siren.
Coach Cameron Stokes did not want his players to get caught up in a shootout with the fleet-footed Bombers and looked on while his players carried out his instructions to the letter.
"I can't remember when we've won our first four games to start the season, we're in a pretty good place to start preparing for a couple of hard opponents in Districts and Nightcliff over the next couple of weeks,'' he said.
Stokes pointed to the defensive work of Kelvin Williams and Kevin Maroney and the run of Jarrod Stokes and Baxter Mensch as keys to the win, while Hassan AhMat-Watkins was influential up forward on a day when eight Buffaloes kicked goals.
Waratah coach Ryan Ayers raised a rare smile after watching his side kick 23 goals against Wanderers while conceding only two on the wide expanses of TIO Stadium.
Tahs' 23.16 (154) to 2.10 (22) win also got them back on the winners' track after two losses in a row.
"The boys did a lot of work on the track over the bye week and it was good to see them rewarded today with a very good performance,'' Ayers said.
"The brand of footy Wanderers play is totally different to PINT and St Mary's who we lost to, so it wasn't as contested as those games, but we were able to execute our gameplan by using the space on offer at TIO Stadium.''
Lionhearted ruckman Arnold Kirby dominated around the ground in what was arguably his best game in a red and white jumper, while nine-goal spearhead Jayden Magro and midfielder Lachlan Cassidy got plenty of touches.
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