Bombers Fall Short
After our big win against Wanderers the week before, the confidence among the group was up. One of our joint captains, Simon Munkara, was back in the team after a hamstring injury and Jarrod Atkinson returns to the line up after not being available last week. We were at full strength, apart from Michael Dunn, who was a late omission because he was ill.
Bombers Progress
After regaining Dion Munkara and Rupert Pupangamirri the week earlier, and having a good win against Southern Districts to cement the double chance, we knew we had to keep the momentum going so that we didn’t lose that advantage. We had a few more players to come into the team – Shane Tipuamantmirri, Michael Fairweather, Courtney Johns and Mark Pennington – to strengthen the team even more, but we knew Wanderers were in the same boat.
Bombers Hang on to 3rd Place
With a crucial game on the line, the winner taking 3rd spot and the double chance in the finals, there was a bit of doubt through the week whether the round would go ahead. With Cyclone Carlos hitting Darwin on the Wednesday and threatening to return later in the week, the round was put on hold. But on the Thursday when the weather bureau decided that the threat of its return was minimal the round was reinstated, and all preparations were back on.
Bombers Back on the Winning List
After the events of the weekend before, the game time was changed to 1.30pm to enable our players and coaching staff to return to Tiwi in daylight hours. There were also other factors that we had to take into consideration to make the flight to and from Darwin as comfortable as possible – such as bigger aircraft and times of flights.
Bombers No Match
This game was due to be played at Tiwi Oval on Nguiu on Sunday, but after the AFL NT ruled the ground unfit to play on when they inspected the ground on the Wednesday through the week, we had to reshuffle our plans late in the week to accommodate the players coming over to play the game in Darwin on the Saturday.
