Ants march past Buffs in six-goal win

Ants march past Buffs in six-goal win Peter Williams

Celina Whan / AFLNT Media

PINT reaffirmed its premiership potential with an impressive 36-point win over Darwin Buffaloes to maintain its place at the top of the Northern Territory Football League (NTFL) Women’s Premier division ladder. The Queen Ants have lost just one game all season and are 12 points ahead of their biggest flag threat, the Waratahs, with a ridiculous percentage of 578.31. It only grew from the weekend following their 6.5 (41) to 0.5 (5) round 15 victory over the reigning premiers.

From the opening bounce, PINT was intent on stepping up to another level, kicking four straight goals in the opening term while limiting the Buffs from scoring. The game escalated over the next two quarters as the defense from both sides really shined. Darwin outscored PINT in the second quarter, but just barely, 0.3 to 0.1, before the Queen Ants added four straight deficits in the third.

Heading into the final stanza, PINT held a 26-point lead and made the most of its opportunities. Although both sides had two goals in the final term, PINT kicked 2.0 to Darwin’s 0.2 to claim the six-goal victory. Steph Lawrence bagged two goals on return from the NTFL Women’s All-Star game, while Amy Chittick, Sarah Ingram, Rhiana Newberry and Katie Strader also hit the scoreboard.

Ingram was named the best in the Queen Ant’s win, with Anna Traill and Reni Hicks also among the better players on the day. The other strikers and Bec Pryer featured in the more prominent players for Darwin. Defender Elisa Nikki was named man of the match in the loss, with her and star talents Molly Althouse and Kylie Duggan all unsurprisingly doing their best to stand up to the PINT dominance. Freyja Pearce and former Eagle Imahra Cameron also tried hard in defeat.

Fellow contenders Waratah completely destroyed the winless Wanderers, with a whopping 47 shots to nil in a 29.18 (192) to 0.0 (0) win. It was party time for the Tahs as Naomi Celebre, Steph O’Brien and Lauren O’Shea all kicked four goals. Top age AFLW Draft hopefuls Annabel Kievit (three goals) and Kierra Zerafa (two) were among 11 individual goal kickers for the victors. Waratah maintained a four-point gap on St Mary’s despite the Saints having a game in hand.

However, St Mary’s cruised to a comfortable win, taking care of Nightcliff by 50 points at the TIO Stadium on Saturday morning. St Mary’s scored the most in the first half nine shots to seven as they led by 32 points and the Tigers could only kick the seven backs. Although Nightcliff were more accurate in the second half, St Mary’s continued their strong performance and ran away 11.5 (71) to 2.9 (21) winners. Adelaide gun forward Danielle Ponter kicked a pair of goals in the win, as did Macie Brown and Kaitlyn Armstrong.

In the other game, Tiwi Bombers kept their finals hopes alive with a crushing four-point win over Southern Districts. The Crocs have only beaten the Wanderers this season and sit in eighth place, but with the Bombers in sixth – and able to overtake Palmerston who had the bye – Tiwi still have an opportunity in the after -season series. The Bombers won 6.12 (48) to 7.2 (44) despite an inspired five-goal effort from Crocs young gun Sophie Berry.