THE 2019\/20 Northern Territory Football League (NTFL) Men’s Premier League Grand Final has been decided after three enthralling post-season weeks, with reigning premier Nightcliff set to face off against St Mary’s after accounting for a brave Southern Districts outfit on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
NIGHTCLIFF 3.1 | 5.5 | 12.6 | 13.10 (88)<\/strong> GOALS:<\/strong><\/p>\n Nightcliff:<\/strong> J. Butcher 5, T. Melville 3, M. Hagan 2, R. Mu, L. Holt-Fitz, C. Ilett. BEST:<\/strong><\/p>\n Nightcliff:<\/strong> N\/A Nightcliff has booked its place in the 2019\/20 NTFL Men’s Premier League grand final after dispatching Southern Districts to the tune of 37 points in Saturday night’s preliminary final. The Tigers earned passage to their second-consecutive appearance in the big dance on the back of a second half blitz, scoring eight goals to three to round out an impressive 13.10 (88) to 8.3 (51) victory.<\/p>\n The first half proved a tighter affair but Nightcliff still managed to get on top and stay there, notching three goals to Districts’ two in the opening term before being pegged back to a two-point buffer at the main break. But as it goes, the third quarter is the premiership quarter and the long-time flag favourites proved as much by pouring on seven majors in a scintillating half hour of football. The 33-point margin upon the final break looked ominous for the Crocs, and they could not produce the magic required to enact a turnaround as both sides could only manage a goal each to round out the contest. In a game which was largely competitive, it seemed the Crocs’ string of knockout finals finally caught up with them as only a momentary falter was enough to see the Tigers run away with the game.<\/p>\n Revered for its recruiting and open chequebook, Nightcliff once again had a star ring-in front the winning effort, with ex-Port Adelaide forward John Butcher<\/strong> booting a game-high five goals. Club leading goalkicker Trent Melville<\/strong> was also on target with three majors of his own, while Michael Hagan<\/strong> (two) rounded out the Tigers’ multiple goalkickers in what was a typically sound all-round team performance. For the Crocs, Ed Barlow<\/strong> was again at the heart of their effort as he notched another two finals goals to be named best in a losing side, with Nathan Horbury<\/strong> not far behind on the back of his own two-goal effort. Michael Barlow<\/strong> finished a phenomenal back-end of the season off well, and consistent standout Thomas Holman<\/strong> was also thereabouts.<\/p>\n While somewhat of a rollercoaster season comes to a disappointing end for the Crocs, who looked to be in top form at just the right time, the Tigers have bounced back well and will look to go back-to-back. Standing in their way is St Mary’s, the only team to have beaten Nightcliff this year (twice) – including last fortnight’s semi final – in looking to go from wooden spooners to premiers. Best-and-fairest winner Kaine Riley<\/strong> will be sure to lead the effort alongside newly-crowned co-Nichols Medalist Brodie Filo<\/strong>, with all the finals experience of Cam Ilett<\/strong> also set to be important as Nightcliff hopes to ensure it can get one-back at St Mary’s at the ideal time. The 2019\/20 NTFL Grand Final is set to go down on Saturday night at TIO Stadium, stay tuned for our comprehensive preview of the big game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THE 2019\/20 Northern Territory Football League (NTFL) Men’s Premier League Grand Final has been decided after three enthralling post-season weeks, with reigning premier Nightcliff set to face off against St Mary’s after accounting for a brave Southern Districts outfit on Saturday night. NIGHTCLIFF 3.1 | 5.5 | 12.6 | 13.10 (88) SOUTHERN DISTRICTS 2.1 | […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":65415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,7232,15],"tags":[7358,7509,7159,7522,7183,6771,7541,10204,10950,2527,7870,7168,8051,10998,10537,10274,7180],"class_list":["post-65397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-northern-territory","category-state-leagues","tag-brodie-filo","tag-cam-ilett","tag-ed-barlow","tag-john-butcher","tag-kaine-riley","tag-michael-barlow","tag-michael-hagan","tag-nathan-horbury","tag-nightcliff-vs-southern-districts","tag-ntfl","tag-ntfl-finals","tag-ntfl-mens-premier-league","tag-ntfl-preliminary-final","tag-ntfl-premier-league-finals","tag-ntfl-results","tag-thomas-holman","tag-trent-melville"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSOUTHERN DISTRICTS 2.1 | 5.3 | 7.3 | 8.3 (51)<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nSouthern Districts:<\/strong> E. Barlow 2, N. Horbury 2, W. Farrer, J. Innes, J. Garlett, D. Barry.<\/p>\n
\nSouthern Districts:<\/strong> E. Barlow, N. Horbury, M. Barlow, L. Ogden, T. Holman, D. Staunton<\/p>\n