32 KATHERINE TIMES, WEDNESDAY MARCH 20, 2013 www.katherinetimes.com.au Published by North Australian News for Katherine Times PO Box 42, Katherine NT 0851Registered by Australia Post - Publication No. SACO412 Printed by Northern Territory News, Darwin

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THREE years worth of going upand down the Stuart Highway cover-ing more than 650 kilometres everyweekend.

Three years of weekend earlystarts for teenage men and wet sea-son river rises and falls.

Three years of small engine planeflights for remote players and nomore than two home games a year.

Three years of team lists of 60 ormore players from an area the size ofVictoria.

It all paid off in the stinking hotmidday sun on Saturday March 16 asa team, that due to the tyranny of dis-tance, has never had a training runtogether won the NTFL 2013 Under18′s Premiership.

The underdog Big River Hawksbeating the highly fancied SouthernDistrict Crocs 10.12.72 to 9.9.63.

Displaying the team spirit, gritand determination that saw themovercome a loss to the Crocs in thefirst week of the finals to go all theway, the Big River Hawks camefrom 14 points down early in thefinal quarter to kick the last fourgoals of the game to claim the title.

The Hawks had come up fromKatherine the night before and spentthe night in swags on the changeroom floor at the Palmerston Foot-ball Club.

Whilst the accommodation maynot sound overly appealing, it servedto bring the task at hand into clearfocus and bring these young mencloser together both literally andmetaphorically.

Whilst nerves and anxiety were

obvious to the onlooker, so was asense of unity and the experiencethat comes from having lost a grandfinal the year before.

Spending the night in Palmerstonalso meant the team was at theground an hour and a half beforekick off for the first time this year.

Coach Abbott had been forced tohave some really difficult conversa-tions during the week with severalplayers missing out on making thegame day list, but all attended to sup-port and assist their team mates, an-other example of the growth of thisgroup into young men of substance.

Pre game talk was kept to a mini-mum, with the focus being on eachplayer doing their job and the sacri-fice of the players who missed out.

The boys ran out through a ban-ner for the first time, with thanks toMaryanne Lewis and the HawthornFootball Club, the national anthemwas sung and it was game on.

The Hawks started well winninga number of clearances and enteringtheir attacking fifty regularly. Bothteams were feeling each other outwith Jesse Bettison, Brad Lewis andBalung Martin being given the jobsof handling the Crocs big three ofDaniel Cox, Nakia Cockatoo andJordan Scanlon.

The Crocs attempted to tag JakeFarrell, however his speed off themark and evasive skills combinedwith his hard running soon had hisopponent struggling.

By the end of the first quarter theHawks had a slender four point lead,with their historically inaccuratekicking not materialising as they en-tered the first break 3.1 to SouthernDistricts 2.3.

The second quarter however sawthe team from Katherine slip backinto their old ways kicking a woeful

one goal six turning a dominantquarter with regards to possessionand field position into a deficit ofthree points at half time.

As has been the case in recentweeks, a lack of poise and balance inrange of goal and an apparent desireto kick the ball across the body ratherthan via a drop punt proved costly.

The team from Fred’s Pass how-ever did not waste their limitedchances kicking three goals one andhad momentum going into the majorinterval.

The Hawks were clearly deflatedby their repeated missed opportuni-ties to break the game open and thedominance of Jordan Scanlon in theCrocs forward line was proving areal problem.

Whenever the ball went to groundthe desperation and skill of theHawks backs would repel the attack,but when on the lead and in space,Scanlon was dominating in the airand kicking accurately to compoundthe issue.

At half time Katherine footballlegend Doug Kelly addressed theteam and emphasised the need to im-prove their skill level, put their headover the ball and focus on balanceand drop punting the ball rather thansnapping for goal.

He reaffirmed that the Hawks hadthe speed and natural ability to winthe match, but just needed to addsome patience and a tad more belief.Coach Abbott repeated Kelly’s mes-sage of patience and maturity in frontof goal and made it clear that com-ing out of defence the team was notto look inboard, but to use the wingsand sideline to move the ball down-field.

In the second quarter nearly everySouthern Districts goal had comefrom a turn over from a Hawks kick

across field where the taller, biggerbodied Crocs would intercept.

This would then result in the ballbeing transferred quickly to theCrocs forward line due to it beingclear from heavy traffic, and get toScanlon in space and one on one.

The third quarter was an armwrestle, but unfortunately some ofthe issues being faced by the Hawkscontinued to raise their head.

Scanlon was continuing to kickgoals, and they were still comingfrom inboard Big River kicks.

The Districts lead had now creptout to eight points and whilst the ef-fort of the Hawks could not be ques-tioned, some of the decision makingwas of concern.

At the three quarter time huddleformer Hawks player Riley Rossspoke to the team about the need tofollow their coach’s instructions andthat the games was theirs to win orlose but that it was them making therunning not Southern Districts.

The whole team was called uponby Coach Abbott for one more quar-ter.

He placed his faith in his seniorplayers to win the midfield contestand deny the ball to the Districts for-ward line.

The Hawks inaugural coach MalFox was heard to quip how vital thefirst goal of the final quarter was, andin this case it went to Southern Dis-tricts only seconds after the start ofthe final stanza.

Thankfully, for Hawks fans, itproved to be their final major of thematch with the team from Big Riverkicking the last four goals to claimthe three year old club’s first Pre-miership flag.

In a pulsating period of play dur-ing which the multitudes of Hawksfans carried their team, the central

group of Jake Farrell, Cedric Robert-son, Boyd George and LawrenceWatego were outstanding, winningclearance after clearance.

This supply to the forward fiftywas capitalised on by Dwayne An-derson who kicked three final quartergoals and finally Marcus Hamiltonwho kicked the match clinchinggoal.

The team from Southern Districtshad their chance to hit the lead latein the final quarter with a shot hittingthe post, however the ball was moveddown field from the resulting kickout and finished in the hands ofHamilton just inside the 50m arc andright in front.

The young man calmly went backand sent the ball sailing between theposts from well outside the attackingzone.

This resulted in muted celebrationby the Hawks players as it had giventhem a nine point lead, but their wasstill a minute and a half on the clock.

As fate would have it, the Crocswon one of their handful of clear-ances for the quarter from the ensu-ing bounce, but as the attack wasrepelled by the Hawks defence backto the centre of the ground the sirensounded and the celebrations beganon the ground and in the stands.

Southern Districts Jordan Scanlonwas deservedly named best onground for his eight goals, andHawks Captain Kayle Kossack andCoach Nick Abbott received thetrophy.

Big River Hawks 10.12.72 def.Southern Districts Crocs 9.9.63

Hawks goals: D. Anderson 3, J.Farrell 2, J. Hall 2, M. Hamilton 2,C. Robertson

Crocs goals: J. Scanlon 8, D.Cox

Big RiverHawks

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