www.ntnews.com.au Tuesday, December 31, 2013. NT NEWS. 33

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SPORT The year in Australian Footballl l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l

action-packed season

Tiwi Bomber Liam Jurrah embraces Redtails’ star player MattCampbell after their epic NTFL match this year

Former NT Thunder player Brett Goodes was in the winningWestern Bulldogs line-up in June at Marrara

Palmerston Magpies junior Aaron ‘‘Flash’’ Davey retired fromthe AFL after playing 179 games with Melbourne

March 27: Former Mel-bourne Demon Liam Jurrahmade a playing return withSouth Alice Springs in theCentral Australian FootballLeague. The high-flying for-ward and Yuendumu 2008premiership player was onthe comeback trail after beingfound not guilty of assault inthe Northern Territory Su-preme Court.

May 28: AFLNT boss TonyFrawley said the Territory’sgrowing economy had thecapacity to accommodate anAFL club. Frawley had float-ed the idea of a Darwin-basedAFL club despite concedingthe bold project was probablya ‘‘long way off’’. ‘‘Economi-cally, if the Territory is stillbooming by 2025 you neverknow,’’ Frawley said. ‘‘Youmight have 500-600,000people here in 10 years time.Then it changes the wholelandscape. Especially whenthe Gold Coast is only half-a-million people and they areup and running as an AFLclub now.’’

May 31: Three-time Indi-genous All-Stars captain And-rew McLeod wanted Colling-wood to ‘‘replay’’ its 1994 All-Stars game in Darwin.McLeod watched from thesidelines while Magpies pre-sident Eddie McGuire madehis infamous gaffe on SydneySwans star Adam Goodes anda King Kong theatrical pro-duction. ‘‘It’s interesting how

history has a habit of repeat-ing itself,’’ McLeod said.‘‘We’ve just gone through the20-year celebration of NickyWinmar making a stanceagainst racism at VictoriaPark and something like thishappens. It would be a nicegesture for Collingwood tocome up and Eddie to do whatMcAlister did by fronting thepeople and spending sometime in the communities.

June 2: The Western Bull-dogs gave new coach BrendanMcCartney a warm introduc-tion to Darwin by engineer-ing a come-from-behind nine-point win over Port Adelaideat TIO Stadium. More than7800 fans turned out to watchthe Dogs win 10.7 (67) to 8.10(58) in mild Top End condit-ions that veteran BulldogDaniel Giansiracusa later cal-led ‘‘horrendous’’.

June 18: The AFLNT an-nounced work on the $15 mill-ion Michael Long Learningand Leadership Centre at TIOStadium would commence inSeptember. Plans for thecentre, at the northern(McMillans Rd) end of TIOStadium, had been approvedby the Darwin Consent Auth-ority. Designed to supportathletes from remote regionsof the Northern Territory inareas of sport and education,the centre includes accom-modation, a swimming pooland spa, gymnasium, kitchenand dining room, classroom-

lecture theatre and indoor re-habilitation centre.

June 20: The Central Aust-ralia Redtails were admittedto an eight-game trial in theNTFL — double the numberof the season before. But full-time admission was still con-ditional on the club acquiringlong-term funding with theeight-game trial costing theCentralians $200,000. Presid-ent Rob Clarke repeated hisclaim that a Redtails side inthe NTFL was bigger than agame of football. ‘‘I hope peo-ple understand it’s designedto achieve so much more thana game of footy,’’ he said.

July 3: A revamped Under-18 national championshipswould see Territory Thunderplay as many as four gamesagainst TAC Cup oppositionin 2014. Division 1 statesVictoria (metro and country)and South Australia wouldplay a home-and-away seriesbetween themselves (six ga-mes in total) instead of aweek-long series and cros-sover matches against Div-ision 2 sides.

July 20: Brisbane beat Mel-bourne by 19 points in an AFLpremiership game played be-fore 7615 fans at TIO Stadium.Tom Rockliff’s 34 disposalsand Pearce Hanley’s 27 madethem the best two players onthe ground.

August 2: Australian foot-ball’s footprint in the North-ern Territory continued to

reach uncharted areas.AFLNT chief executive TonyFrawley revealed plans to putthe game’s permanent brandon 14 remote locationsstretching across the NT.They ranged from Groote Ey-landt in the east to Wadeye inthe west, north to the Tiwi Is-lands and Elcho Island andsouth to Central Australiaand Hermannsburg.

August 20: Aaron ‘‘Flash’’Davey retired from the AFLafter 179 games with Mel-bourne. A Palmerston Mag-pies junior, Davey signalledhis intention to resume play-ing in the NTFL.

August 31: Federal stor-med home to stun Pioneer byfour points in the CAFLPremier League grand final atTraeger Park. The Demons15.8 (98) to 15.4 (94) win wasthe club’s second premiershipin the past three seasons.

September 14: Eastsidewon its first Big Rivers Foot-ball League premiership in 12years when it beat Ngukurrby 15 points in the grand finalat the Katherine Show-grounds. Eastside led by 40points midway through thethird quarter before holdingon against the fleet-footedBulldogs to win 10.14 (74) to8.11 (59). Blues defender BrianColeman-Broome won theMorris Medal as the bestplayer on the ground.

October 9: Dual NTFLNichols medallist and four-

time St Marys premiershipplayer Jarred Ilett made hisplaying comeback with StMarys after two years awaybecause of Territory Thun-der commitments.

October 16: AFL NorthernTerritory and Nightcliff Foot-ball Club continued to dis-agree on the merits and nega-tives of the player pointssystem. AFLNT boss Tony Fr-awley said the new systemhad been embraced by all thePremier League clubs, butNightcliff president MarkKelly said the 22-point cap forinterstate recruits andplayers from rival clubs wasrestricting the standard of thecompetition.

October 24: AFL grandfinalists the Fremantle Dock-ers announced they wouldplay a premiership match inDarwin next year. The RossLyon-coached Dockers willplay the Paul Roos-coachedMelbourne at TIO Stadium inearly July. And in a historicmove, Alice Springs wouldhost its first premiershipgame when Melbourne andPort Adelaide lock horns atTraeger Park in May.

October 30: Two Territorywarriors ended their AFL ca-reers when Alwyn Davey atEssendon (100 games) andRichard Tambling (Richmondand Adelaide, 124 games) aredelisted by their clubs.

October 26: Geelong prem-iership ruckman Mark Blake

made a historic debut for StMarys against Nightcliff.Blake — a 2009 flag winnerwith the Cats — was the firstpremiership player from aVFL-AFL club to play inthe NTFL.

October 30: Liam Jurrah’splaying career took anotherturn when he signed for theTiwi Bombers after snubbingovertures from the CentralAustralian Redtails. Jurrahwas an instant hit in theNo.12 jumper when he kickedfive goals against Wandererson debut at the Bombers’Bathurst Island ground.

November 21: No Territor-ians were drafted to AFLclubs, the first time this hadhappened since the first nat-ional draft in 1986. Attitudeand commitment were usedto explain the absence of TopEnd talent, despite an abun-dance of skill and the reten-tion of the player ‘‘X’’ factor.

November 25: NTFL clubsSouthern Districts and theTiwi Bombers called for a ret-hink on the league’s decisionto cancel their Round 8 gameon Bathurst Island. TheAFLNT bowed to the poten-tial dangers associated withTropical Cyclone Alessia bycancelling Sunday matches inall grades in Darwin and onthe Tiwi Islands. ‘‘The safetyof our players, supporters,umpires and staff are of para-mount importance,’’ chiefexecutive Tony Frawley said.