Northampton miss chance in Rovers’ return to form as Royals call in star players

Rovers locked horns with the Rams over the weekend in round 11 of the GNFL out at Purcher International Oval in a battle to see who would take third place. Northampton came into the round on a wave of momentum having won four on the bounce including wins over Brigades and Railways to go in with a real chance of jumping into the top three. However, Rovers flexed their muscles and shook off a bad couple of weeks to reassert themselves in third place, coming away dominant victors 12.13 (85) to 5.13 (43). After coming off a shock loss to Mullewa the Demons were arguably coming in as the underdogs, especially away from home, but looked far sharper early on in the encounter. They dominated the opening exchanges and jumped to a 17-point lead at quarter-time as Northampton managed just three behinds against the three opening goals of the Demons. The second quarter was a more competitive affair with both teams trading goals. Rams star Nathaniel Mourambine was having a rare quiet day so captain Beau Walker and Trent Simpson stepped up as the forward options. Meanwhile, Gabriel Parfitt was again dangerous and Chris Scott continued his good form from last week as Rovers led into half-time 3.4 (22) to 7.5 (47) Northampton were just about hanging in there but would need a spark after half-time to try to gain ascendancy in the match. They arguably had the better running of the third quarter generating seven scoring shots to three but were wasteful with their opportunities. Beau Walker should have done better off a quick snap almost immediately after the restart but only managed to find the goal post while Adrian Bartolo missed a tougher shot to the right while on the run from a tight angle. In contrast Rovers grabbed their first opportunity catching Rams on the break allowing Jy Thurstun to run into an open goal. Dwayne Neville then burst through a forward-half melee to run into an open goal to keep the foot on Rams. The Rams did manage to find a couple goals to keep the margin to 20 points but two goals and six behinds just was not a good enough conversion rate given their dominance. It showed in the last quarter as they tried mustering just three more behinds while Rovers added three goals and should have won by more but kicked seven behinds as they suffered from their own accuracy issues. It mattered little, however, as Rovers would be happy to get back on track with a strong win and now goes a game clear in third place. Scott was the best on ground, working hard through the midfield and kicking two majors. He had great support from Jack Eastough, Jamie Geier, Kobe Simpson, Jaimon Alone. Walker was Northampton’s best forward with two majors and Jordan Drage worked hard but did not have enough contributions across the ground. In Chapman Valley, a star-studded Royals side upset Railways to keep their faint hopes alive. The Royals had Matt Priddis and Lewis Jetta suited up for them and their class showed as they dominated in the midfield battle to win 97 to 58. Mullewa completed a rare feat to win two in a row against the bottom-of-the-table Towns as Callum Papertalk starred with three goals with good support from Tim Steele, Troy Simpson, Calvin Wall and Christopher Wall. The biggest winners of the round were probably the Brigades, despite not playing a game, as they moved into top spot game because of Railways’ percentage hit. The league will now take a break as the country championships begin Thursday.