Lowe rises in final quarter as South survive physical NTFA footy encounter

It was about going from young pups to big dogs, and it worked.

Rocherlea recruit Dartaynan Bantick had just been swarmed by teammates after kicking his first major of the season and the Tigers had their tails up.

They had a one-goal lead in what had been a physical and see-sawing affair.

The Bulldogs were without their best player Jay Blackberry and gun recruit Jordan Tepper while experienced half-back Luke McCarty had gone off with a hamstring complaint.

South's star ruck Cody Lowe listened intently to Maher's speech. He had been followed closely and had a ripped sleeve.

Lowe proceeded to dominate the opening minutes of the final term, consistently knocking the ball to South's advantage. It led to back-to-back majors for recruit Brad Dodds.

He swung one home on the run and then benefitted from a downfield free-kick as Rocherlea players lost their heads.

Another goal went through for South and they had a 13-point buffer.

The Tigers composed themselves and had every chance to win it with numerous behinds either side of goals from recruit Kaidan Baker and Zane Brown.

Meanwhile, Dodds goaled again after a downfield free-kick and what appeared to be a double 50-metre penalty.

There was a big cheer from the South bench and the relieved players hugged when the final siren sounded on their 12.12 (84) to 11.16 (82) victory.

Maher elaborated on his coming-of-age speech.

"A lot of our young fellas, they might be 19 or 20, but they were in our system last year," he said.

"So for them to start turning themselves into senior players, especially at this level, it was just one of those moments where you just have to step up.

"And then pretty much all 22 players just said, 'Yep, I'm going to take my moment here'."

The other aspect he brought up at three quarter-time was South's scenario training in pre-season.

"We did a lot of situational stuff, just how to save games, how to win games," he said.

"A lot of that can sometimes go out the door and people just expect to know how to do that. So we educated the whole side on that."

Rocherlea brought a physical brand and Maher felt the Bulldogs handled it well.

"We knew what we were coming up against and for young kids to stand up and 'go, no, I'm not taking this kind of thing. It was good to see'," he said.

Maher praised Lowe's ability to overcome close attention all day.

"That's something we've worked with Big Smoke (Lowe) on, that with him starting to become an elite player in the competition - you're going to start seeing attention," he said.

"The way he just worked through it, took it on the chin and just kept going and competing in the ruck (was great)."

Rocherlea coach Josh Ponting was left to rue his team's ill discipline in the decisive final term and said they'd look to clean that up.

"We had a couple of free-kicks and a 50 (metre penalty) that I'd rather not have in a game of football, especially that tight," he said.

"That can be the difference between a win and loss but (we) take nothing away from South - they're probably the team to beat and it was a cracking contest."

In other matches, Bridgenorth defeated Bracknell 9.13 (67) to 9.5 (59), Hillwood thrashed Scottsdale 21.22 (148) to 1.3 (9) and George Town beat Deloraine 11.13 (79) to 6.8 (44).