Retired Geelong legend Gary Ablett Junior headlined the Northern Territory Football League’s round eight matches when he made a one-off appearance for Palmerston in its 31-point loss to St Mary’s.
Ablett played with former teammate Mathew Stokes and former Melbourne and North Melbourne star Cam Pederson in the match.
Interest in the winter competition has been high in the Kyabram region, and wider Goulburn Valley, as a number of players are involved in the competition — at Premier league level and in the reserves.
Tongala’s Jack Hammond kicked two goals in Nightcliff’s 14-point Premier League loss to Darwin Buffaloes which included former Carlton and Brisbane Lions hard man Mitch Robinson.
Robinson also kicked two goals in the match, which has left Nightcliff sitting in sixth position on the ladder with a 3-4 win/loss record.
Kyabram’s Aidan Robinson hasn’t missed a game in the top flight for Nightcliff, but pressure is being applied by his Kyabram teammate Anthony De Pasquale and the Tongala pair of Coby McCarthy and Sam Cipriani.
McCarthy was best on ground in the Premier League reserves team’s 119-22 win against Darwin Buffaloes, while Cipriani took his seven-game goal tally to 12 with his third bag of three goals.
The reserves team sits third on the ladder, with De Pasquale also starring with seven goals so far this season.
George still top 20 ranked
Girgarre draft hopeful Brayden George has been ranked as the 17th best player in the 2023 AFL Draft by renowned draft guru Cam Twomey.
Twomey last week announced his top 30 picks in the draft, which is expected to led by father-son selection, Will Ashcorft, the son of Brisbane Lions premiership player Marcus.
George, despite have had reconstruction surgery on his knee, improved in the rankings (from 22 in October).
Twomey said it was hard to see George slipping too far into the second round despite the injury setback, with Sydney, Melbourne and Greater Western Sydney his most likely destinations.