NIGHTCLIFF won its fourth match in as many weeks when it came back from the dead to beat St Mary's by two points in Saturday's Round 15 Men's Premier League clash at TIO Stadium.
Victorian recruit Lachlan Huppatz kicked the winning goal for the Tigers when he lay on his back in the goalsquare to produce an overhead kick that split the middle to give his side the lead and lift them to fourth on the league ladder.
St Mary's were left to ponder some ordinary finishing in front of goals when Nightcliff took advantage of their wayward kicking to kick the last two goals through Hamish Hartlett and the acrobatic Huppatz.
In typical Nightcliff-St Mary's fashion the game turned into a genuine arm wrestle from the first bounce with five lead changes before the Tigers snatched a 7.9 (51) to 6.13 (49) win.
Ben Vile and skipper Ryan Nyhuis in defence and the hard running Bailey Edwards were the pick of a Tiger outfit beginning to loom large in the race for Territory football's Holy Grail.
Coach Chris Baksh was not surprised at the closeness of the scores, saying matches between the two sides in the past four seasons had not produced any blowouts.
"We're always confident we can win the close games, but I was a little nervous when we were two goals down in a low scoring match,'' Baksh said.
"We're really happy with where we're at, right now it's a case of keep winning and lock ourselves into the finals.''
PINT produced the upset of the round when it beat the Darwin Buffaloes in Saturday's twilight game at TIO Stadium.
The Greenants survived a Buffalo charge in the second quarter to win by 14 points and move to within half a game of the fifth-placed Double Blues with three minor round games left in the season.
Thomas Schott and Alex Harvey around the ball and three-goal skipper Matt Ryan steered the Greenants' ship in their most important win of the year.
First-year PINT coach Shannon Motlop said the players had focused on a big performance in the week leading up to the match.
"We've got a hard run home (Southern Districts at Fred's Pass and Nightcliff at DXC Arena before a last round bye) but if you watched us tonight you would have seen we're confident in our ability,'' he said.
"We haven't been able to kick goals but in the last two weeks we've put our foot down and hit the scoreboard which points us in the right direction when talking about playing finals footy.''
Ladder leaders Southern Districts showed their intent early in their lightning shortened 89-point win over the Tiwi Bombers.
The Crocodiles rebounded from last week's loss to Nightcliff by kicking seven goals to one in the first quarter and another five in the second against the hapless Bombers.
Luke Smith, seven-goal spearhead Sam Dunstan and Kaine Stevens were prominent players as Districts moved closer to the minor premiership and a week off in the first week of the finals.
For coach Shannon Rusca, the 15.16 (106) to 2.5 (17) win without several first choice players was proof of his side's playing depth.
Jake McQueen, Jye Bolton, Matt Shannon, Jack Mentha and Roy George were among a number of regulars who missed the afternoon clash.
"We worked on a few areas that let us down in the loss to Nightcliff and I reckon we've fixed them,'' Rusca said.
"We executed pretty well against a quick Tiwi side that tested us on occasion, but we continued to work hard and the results showed.''
Waratah won Sunday's Foundation Cup game against Wanderers by 43 points, the Eagles adding some respectabiity to the scoreboard when they kicked four goals to one in the last quarter.
Tahs ran the ball with authority and used the football well on the Tracy Village ground, Joel Crocker continuing his late season surge and captain Brodie Carroll and Dylan Collis in stellar form around the ball.
The 12.14 (86) to 6.7 (43) win kept the red and whites half a game behind ladder leaders Southern Districts with three rounds remaining to decide the minor premiers.
