www.ntnews.com.au Saturday, March 23, 2013. NT NEWS. 45

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Souths out to turn it aroundRUGBY LEAGUE

ByGREGORMACTAGGART

Billy Johnstone

SOUTH Darwin is looking toend a 955-day losing streakagainst University in today’sNTRL A-grade season-openerat Richardson Park.

The Rabbitohs have nottasted victory since beatingthe Sharks 50-22 at leagueheadquarters on July 30, 2010.

Despite that statistic, thereis a sense of optimism in theSouth Darwin camp undernew coach Billy Johnstoneand a first-up success may notbe beyond them.

The former Canterbury, StGeorge and Gold Coast playerhas forecast an influx of newblood as pivotal if the Red andGreen are to climb from thecellar in season 2013.

‘‘We’re looking to promotea number of younger players,

boys such as Kyle O’Brienand Peter Nibbs, who will gettheir chance in A-gradefootball,’’ Johnstone said.

‘‘You always look forwardto a brand new season withoptimism and University willgive us a good yardstick ofhow we are going.’’

Much rests on theshoulders of Daryl Nahowand Francis Wapau for theBunnies against a Sharksclub celebrating its 40thanniversary this season.

University coach EddieMotlop admits depth will be aconcern during the initialstages of 2013, but his teamhas a bit of the band gettingback together feel about it.

‘‘Jason Criddle is backfrom retirement to play,while we’ve got MartyRamage, Damien Mick, RyanCollins, Gapirri Yunupingu,

Troy Criddleand Mark Mickin the team,’’Motlop said.

‘‘Early on,we’ll battle a bitwith a lack of

numbers, but we’ve got aproud culture at the club andaim to be as competitive as wecan be each week.’’

Kick-off is at 4pm.Competition newcomers

Katherine make the tripnorth to play last season’slosing grand finals Nightcliffat 5.45pm.

The Dragons go into theclash as warm favouritesagainst a Tigers combinationmaking the step up to the top-level after two undefeatedseasons in reserve grade.

Co-coaches Jesse Macleanand Michael Fairweather willattempt to lead from the front,

while halves pairing QuincyTo’oto’o-ulugia and BradleySneddon are charged withdirecting Nightcliff aroundthe park.

The last game of the triple-header sees Palmerstonagainst Litchfield at 7.30pm.

The Raiders under newcoach Geoff Cregan havenamed ex-Nightcliff fullbackTrenton Smith for his debut,while Daniel Keelan returnsto the competition following ayear’s hiatus at five-eighth.

Litchfield have named twonewcomers Luke High andDom Devitt, while GavinBrown returns to fill the roleas the Bears’ custodian.

In reserve grade, there havebeen two forfeits withUniversity and Katherine/Jabiru unable to get enoughplayer numbers for theirRound 1 matches.

Flanaganregainscoach jobCRONULLA coach ShaneFlanagan is back at the helmof the besieged NRL club,but not before admitting hewas part of managementfailures which resulted inthe board sacking four foot-ball staff members.

Two weeks ago, Flanaganwas stood down and four ofhis colleagues axed by theclub’s board following a re-view of their handling of al-leged issues in 2011 that arenow the subject a continu-ing ASADA investigation.

Yesterday, an emotionalFlanagan was reinstated bythe board based on inform-ation provided by a secondindependent review.

Flanagan will return tothe coach’s box for tomor-row’s clash with the War-riors at Sharks Stadium,with Peter Sharp revertingto being his assistant.

However, new chairmanGlenn Coleman made itclear the sacked quartet offootball manager DarrenMooney, physio KonradSchultz, trainer Mark Noa-kes and doctor Dave Givneywon’t get their jobs back.

When stood down onMarch 8 with the board cit-ing management failures,Flanagan, like the sackedstaff, said he had no ideawhat he’d done wrong.

Flanagan admitted faultand said he understood whythe board had taken suchstrong action.

‘‘It has been a tough fewweeks for all of us, but I nowunderstand why I was stooddown and why the boardmade the decisions it has,’’Flanagan said. ‘‘There weremanagement failures.

‘‘We have agreed thatthere have to be changes inthe way we work and theway we look after players.’’

Asked if he had been toldto toe the party line in hiscomments on the board’s ac-tion, Flanagan said: ‘‘Defi-nitely not.’’

He said he bore no ill-willtowards the board for theirdecision and said he was‘‘grateful’’ to be back.

Slater kicks on as NRL declares contact ‘accidental’BILLY Slater has avoidedadding to a lengthy rap sheetthat already features banstotalling half a season.

Yesterday, the NRL MatchReview Committee allowedSlater to walk after he wasplaced on report in Mel-bourne’s 22-18 win over Can-terbury on Thursday night.

The Melbourne fullback ex-

tended his leg which caughtapproaching Canterburyprop David Klemmer in theface as Slater flew throughthe air after catching a bomb.

Slater’s mid-air boot re-sulted in him being placed onreport on the advice from thevideo referee, who had de-scribed it as a suspected‘‘act of foul play’’.

The NRL released a state-ment yesterday saying thecontact from the karate-likekick was ‘‘accidental’’.

‘‘Whilst on first view it wasan incident of concern, theMatch Review Committeefound that player Slater wasin the air competing for theball when contact was madebetween his foot and the neck

of player Klemmer, who wasnot contesting the ball,’’ theNRL statement said.

‘‘In our opinion, the con-tact was accidental andplayer Slater did not breachhis duty of care. We did notview the contact as careless.

‘‘A player from the defend-ing team is entitled to contestthe ball in the air under the

assumption he will land be-fore an opposition player at-tempts to tackle him.’’

Storm coach Craig Bellamyand captain Cameron Smithlaunched spirited defences ofSlater post-match with bothappearing to blame Klemmerfor the incident.

‘‘He (Klemmer) put himselfin that position,’’ Smith said.

Wests’ Chris Lawrence dives across to score one of the Tigers’ five tries during their rout of Parramatta Picture: GETTY IMAGES

Lawrence strikes twice as Tigers feast on sloppy EelsTIGERS 31

EELS 18

WESTS TIGERS:C Lawrence 2BAyshford BMarshall TMoltzen tries; BMarshall 5goals JMiller field goalPARRAMATTA: J Loko RMorganV Toutai tries; CSandow3goalsCrowd: 18,326 at LeichhardtOvalReferees: ShayneHayne,Alan Shortall

WESTS Tigers posted theirsecond win on the trot incomfortable fashion lastnight, downing an error-prone Parramatta 31-18 in theclash at Leichhardt Oval.

Two tries in the opening 20minutes from Chris Law-rence laid the foundations forthe Tigers.

With the newly re-signedRobbie Farah and BenjiMarshall dominating, the

Eels could not get a footholdon the game and they didn’thelp their cause by givingaway needless penalties.

The visitors were made topay on the half-hour markwhen Blake Ayshford dartedover in the right corner,boosting his side to an 18-0half-time lead.

Parramatta’s Ryan Morgangave his side hope three min-utes after the restart when he

crossed for their opening try,but the hosts responded.

Marshall and Tim Moltzenscored for the Tigers in thespace of three minutes.

Vai Toutai and Jacob Lokotouched down to make thescoreboard more respectablefor the Eels, but Jacob Millerput their hopes of victory tobed with a late field goal.

Mitchell Allgood andJarryd Hayne were both

guilty of losing possessionearly and the hosts took fulladvantage, twice spreadingthe ball to the left where Law-rence muscled his way pastChris Sandow to score.

The Eels almost reducedthe deficit on the stroke ofhalf-time when Hayne made agreat break.

He released Vai Toutai,who found Loko, but theyoung centre fumbled.