Unbeaten Tiwis face acid test with Saints, Crocs showdowns to come
TIWI Bombers centreman Simon Munkara knows a testing two weeks awaits his side.
The ladder-topping Bombers, in their second proper season in the Northern Territory Football League (NTFL), are the only team yet to lose a game after five rounds.
But in their next two matches they face teams capable of taking them on at their own game.
On Saturday, the Tiwis play St Mary's, then Southern Districts the following weekend. Those sides occupy spots two and three on the league ladder and know how to apply the pressure on the islanders.
Worryingly for the Tiwis, despite their record, is their propensity to put in less than a four-quarter effort. Discount for a second their pulverising 145-point win over lowly Palmerston last Saturday, their other victories have come on the back of 'bursts' late in games.
That they can have a 5-0 record suggest they obviously are a better side than some, but we'll know a bit more about them in two weeks time.
But Munkara, who is getting back into some good form after playing only a handful of games for the Bombers last season, reckons his team can handle what's in store.
"We put them away, we played a full game against Palmerston, so if we can keep our intensity up like that, then we'll go allright against St Mary's and Southern Districts," Munkara, 25, said.
But what caused the lapses?
"Other teams are getting used to us; they know our skill levels," Munkara offered.
"And when we make mistake with turnovers, we don't push back hard enough ... but we're working on that at training."
Munkara, a NTFL premiership player with Darwin Buffaloes (2005/06), spent the 2007 season at SANFL club South Adelaide where he played a handful of senior games with the Panthers.
Injury forced him to miss most of the 2008 season but his return to fitness and form is paying off for the Bombers. Munkara is in some kind of touch and his poise in traffic is something to behold.
"That was my dream, to play in the SANFL," he said.
"I played six or seven games and enjoyed my time there. But I had a problem with my back and couldn't train. Physio didn't work so I made a choice to come back home and get my back right for this season."
Wedding on song at full-forward
WEST Australian Ashley Wedding is heading towards yet another big haul of goals in the NTFL this season.
The Southern Districts forward is leading the league's goalkicking with 36, only five rounds into the season. That's an average of 7.2 per game.
He leads the tally by a whopping 17 goals.
Wedding snared eight majors against St Mary's last Saturday and at this rate could again kick 100 or more goals like he did in the 2006/07 season when he booted 115 of them. That's the season the Crocs won the flag.
Wedding is the only century goal-kicker in the NTFL this decade and one of only two since the 1995/96 season.
DARREN MONCRIEFF
AboriginalFootball@westnet.com.au
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Last Modified on 13/11/2008 02:37