In one of the more stirring wins in the young club’s history, Big River Hawks overcame the highly fancied Nightcliff Tigers by 15 points to set up a clash with Palmerston Magpies next week for the right to be the first team into the 2014 Grand Final.

Last week, Nightcliff had comfortably accounted for minor premiers Palmerston in the final round of the regular season and touched up the Hawks last time out at Nitmiluk Oval. As a result, they were full of confidence and started strongly by kicking the first two goals of the match.

The Hawks slowly worked their way into the match, however, with goals to Caleb Clyden and a long-range effort from Marcus Hamilton. But with a slight breeze at their backs, the Tigers went into the first break with a two goal lead.

The next quarter was all the Hawks. The young men from Nightcliff were only able to muster a solitary point while the Hawks piled on the pressure and points running towards the Macmillan Road end, finishing the half 20 points in front.

The team from the Big River region went into the main break with spirits as high as they have been throughout the season.

The buoyant mood, however, was short lived as the quarter two result was turned on its head immediately after half time with the Tigers pouring on the pressure and the points resulting in a 10 point deficit for the Hawks at three quarter time, kicking 1.3 to the Magpies’ 6.2.

The Macmillan Road end continued to be the focus of all the scoring with the Hawks receiving a tough call when a Nightcliff player took an academy award winning dive to claim a downfield free kick resulting in a shot from the top of the goal square.

That aside, the away team was completely dominated in clearances, hard ball gets and tackling as the boys in black and yellow took control of the midfield battle.

The Hawks’ three-quarter time huddle was in stark contrast to the halftime version. Heads were dropping and clearly some thought the opportunity was lost.

Coach Abbott talked about the need to be accountable, the clear advantage of kicking with the breeze and the need for the team’s senior players to stand up.

From then on, most things went right for the team from down the highway. While not always pretty, the desire and determination was there for all to see.

There were, however, some real flashes of brilliance including some amazing light stepping from Kurtley Silver, the lightening pace of Caleb Clyden, and contested marking of Paddy Kossack in defence and Marcus Hamilton in attack. One goal in particular stood out. The ball came out of the Hawks defensive goal square and over the back of the waiting pack. Seizing the moment, the Hawks player dashed down the grandstand wing sending a long penetrating kick into the forward fifty to what seemed an easy chest mark for Silver. The ball spilt free, however, with the moment seemingly lost, Silver leapt to his feet, collecting the ball in one hand as he simultaneously changed direction turning his opposition player inside out and snapping a hard, low, bouncing shot back across the goal where it was met on the volley by the boot of his teammate redirecting it between the posts.

The Tigers never stopped trying, but in the end the desire of the Hawks proved too much, eventually running out 14-point victors.

ABC footage of the match (unfortunately mainly in the third quarter dominated by Nightcliff) can be found here.

Next weekend the Hawks take on the Minor Premiers, the Palmerston Magpies with the winner claiming the first spot in the Grand Final and earning a week off, whilst the loser must take on the winner of Semi Final No. 1 between Nightcliff and the Darwin Buffaloes.

So if you are in the Top End get along and support your team at 11.15am on Saturday March 1 on TIO No. 1.

Big River Hawks 12.9 (81)
Nightcliff 10.7 (67)

Goal kickers: Big River Hawks: K. Silver 2, B. Lewis 2, M. Hamilton , J. Hall , C. Clyden , J. Gardner , I. Bell , L. Gumbula, B. Nunggamajbarr

Nightcliffe: D. Wauchope 5, K. Narluwerrd , D. Coombes , B. Purtell , W. McCarthy , J. Nabalum