The best Northern and Southern men's talent was on display at UTAS Stadium as the two sides battled during the opening minutes.

The Southern visitors added the first major on the board through Jack Dolliver but the home side quickly returned the favour via Longford's Charlie Taylor.

The Tigers' goalsneak was prominent across the day as he led the NTFA's goal-kicking with three majors which was a feat matched by the SFL's Jack Miller while Brayden Shaw and Ryan Backhouse had two apiece.

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When Deacon Bloomfield roved and slotted a classy major on the turn, the two sides went goal-for goal across the day with high-quality skills on display.

"I spoke to them after the game about how they're the future of the competition, whether they go on to TSL or stay in the NTFA but they're the future of the North," NTFA coach Jack Maher said.

"It's very exciting, the future is looking bright."

It went to the final change with the sides only separated by a point as the SFL colts snatched back the lead midway through the third term. Miller showcased his nous close to goal to shrug a tackle and snap through a critical goal.

"I backed them in to take the game on which was a big thing that we spoke about during the week, that we wanted to play an exciting brand of football and play to our strengths," Maher said.

The SFL had a dominant final term with four goals to one as they secured a 20-point win.

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Rocky Barron added a terrific goal after finding the ball off the ruck contest and burring it from the arc but the SFL added two more after including the match-winner to Sam Voss.

Jackson Richards was awarded best-on-ground for the SFL while Johnny Elmer took that honour for the NTFA.

"Definitely [Jackson's] work around the contest, we were winning the ruck but they were definitely on top in the clearances when it mattered and he won some critical clearances for them and got it going forward," Maher said.

"That was probably where the game was won for them.

"Johnny is one of them up-beat personality guys that are in the group, he's probably been impacted by injury a bit this year and wasn't too sure if he was ready to play but he certainly showed it out there that he's got some serious talent."

Dylan Farquhar was a key target for the NTFA while captain Will Richards and vice-captain Alex Jordan also drew praise from Maher.

"The big thing for me was that no player out there really had a bad game it was a good team effort," he said.

"Will Richards and Alex Jordan were really good for us and obviously Dylan Farquhar, he took some big clunks and he's going to be a handful for defenders at senior level."

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