MORRIS on MONDAY Top End Tyranny of Distance
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MONDAY AUGUST 5 2019 SPORT 37 MORRIS ON MONDAY Top End tyranny of distance Will the next Territory superstar like D'Arcy Short come through the Strike League? Picture: DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/GETTY GREY MORRIS This month’s Strike League will give Territory fans a CREATING player pathways Sports face battle with isolation close-up look at the future of and all it embraces can be a Australian cricket and Terri- complex and often frustrating tory players plenty of reasons process in the changing land- formalised in the Brisbane- and the stand-alone club iveness of the Thunder side familiarity among the clubs to lift their skills to another scape of sport. based QAFL and NEAFL and needed a permanent connec- who have not played finals they are competing against. level. The Northern Territory’s why cricket opted for a Strike tion with the league’s board to football for two seasons and A lot of time and money Is there another D’Arcy isolation and long distances League in their own backyard. remain in place was consid- are destined to “win’’ their first has been invested into the Short among the local contin- between major towns and Territory footballers and ered irrelevant. wooden spoon in their 11th Thunder program for a couple gent plying their trade against communities are other obsta- cricketers get a close-up look A decade on and the bene- NEAFL season. of premierships and a handful rising stars from the southern cles confronting the men and at what is required to succeed fits of flying to, transporting A lack of bigger bodies in of AFL draftees. states who can attract the at- women who aspire to making at that level and what they players and officials to and the Thunder group and a big That leaves their big sup- tention of Cricket Australia’s their sport the central part of have to do in terms of pro- from airports and motels, elevation in class, strength port staff of gurus and minders own gurus? their lives. gressing to a more elite level. playing and flying home are and tactical football by the with the task of finding a solu- Soccer and rugby league Australian football, rugby Thunder officials decided still being debated. NEAFL clubs has left the Ter- tion to where Thunder is have their own programs that league, cricket and soccer are to make their football club an Playing in the Brisbane ritory struggling at the back of going in terms of future com- have been handicapped by a the main codes searching for independent organisation in competition produced a run- the pack. petition, player strength and lack of funding for years. recognition and a share of the its formative years, stating away premiership win in 2011 A move to the stronger local support. But there is cream rising to spoils at professional level, a more than once that they were and a one-point triumph over SANFL or VFL competitions Cricket’s decision to bring the top in those sports, some- tough ask for the individual a stand-alone club with their Aspley in a Marrara stadium has been floated, a radical the elite to Darwin and Alice thing my good friend Vic Lud- and not an easy task for own coaching, administration full of 6000 fans four years change that could invigorate Springs rather than traverse wig says is the logical way for coaches and administrators. and even board of directors. later. the Thunder brand, simply by the continent in search of a Territory sportspeople to be It was why the Thunder The fact that the board had But the success has dried the new location in Mel- workable player pathway is an identified, developed and nur- program was put forward and very distinctive AFLNT links up, along with the competit- bourne or Adelaide and the interesting move. tured. ON THIS DAY Jesse Owens wins third gold at Berlin Olympics 1901: Irishman Peter O’Connor sets 61 times for his country is born in 1965: South African batsman 1969: Pittsburgh Pirates out- 1984: American Joan Benoit wins the first officially recognised world Skegness, Lincolnshire Graeme Pollock scores a classic 125 fielder Willie Stargell smashes the the first Olympic marathon for long jump record at 24 feet 11 ¾ inch- 1948: A Jamaican 1-2 in the men’s to set the Proteas on the way to a longest home run ever hit out of women (2 hours 24:52 minutes) es in Dublin, Ireland. 400m at the London Olympics, with second Test win against England at Dodgers Stadium; the incomparable ahead of Grete Waitz of Norway at 1936: American athlete Jesse Arthur Wint (46.2 seconds) beating Trent Bridge in Nottingham. shot off pitcher Alan Foster meas- the Los Angeles Games. Owens wins the 200 metres in world teammate Herb McKenley. 1966: West Indies captain Gary ured 506 feet (154.3 metres). 2013: Major League Baseball bans record time (20.7 seconds), his third 1962: Patrick Ewing an NBA cen- Sobers scores 174, including a cen- 1979: Australia’s David Graham New York Yankees infielder Alex gold medal of the Berlin Olympics. tre with the NY Knicks and an tury between lunch and tea, to set up wins the US PGA Championship on Rodriguez for 211 games as a conse- 1948: Ray Clemence, the English Olympic gold medallist in 1992, is a fourth Test win against England at the third playoff hole against Ameri- quence of the Biogenesis Labor- soccer goalkeeper who was capped born in Kingston, Jamaica Headingley. can Ben Crenshaw. atories scandal. V1 - NTNE01Z01MA.