Tigers pounce for a red-hot start

The Derby Tigers made a roaring start in their quest to end a 35-year premiership drought in round one of the West Kimberley Football League over the weekend.

The side picked up a 41-point victory over Towns in a high-scoring encounter in Broome on Saturday afternoon, despite a final-quarter surge by the latter.

Lewis Riley booted the first goal of the match for the Tigers after a solid back-and-forth contest in the midfield, before teammate Rhonen Maher got his first on the board.

The Tigers nailed a couple more in a strong first quarter, until Karl Bedford slotted before the first break to give Towns a bit of confidence heading into the second.

But it was quickly quashed by Derby as the second quarter got under way, thanks in part to a dominant ruck performance by Mick Embley, as well as Rhonen Maher and Daniel Mooney, who were unstoppable in the forward and backlines, respectively.

After trailing by 54 points at half- time, things looked dim for Towns, who only managed to put one goal on the board in the third, while Derby racked up another three to extend their lead to 66.

The Broome side refused to quit and came out firing in the final term, with Scott Bedford, Damien Crispin and Marvin Watson among those contributing to the team’s seven-goal quarter.

But it was too little too late against the solid Tigers, who were up 16.8 (104) to 10.3 (63) as the final siren sounded.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom for Towns — Sean Williams had a best on ground-worthy performance in his first WKFL match.

Towns take on Cable Beach tomorrow night, while the Tigers tackle rivals Broome Bulls on Saturday afternoon.