46 — Northern Territory News, Thursday, December 10, 2009 www.ntnews.com.au

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Eagles, lift your gameWe’re capable of better,says veteran Karpany

SPORTS EXTRA

ByGREYMORRIS

JOURNEYMAN Wanderersfootballer Tim Karpany hascalled on his teammates to behonest with themselves in abid to turn around theirNTFL season.

Six losses in seven matches hasseen the Eagles crash from secondposition on the ladder to two gamesand 12 percentage points outsidethe top five.

Karpany, 37, played his 150thNTFL game in Wanderers’ 14-goalloss to Nightcliff last week.

The pacy rover-forward won theNichols Medal as the league’s bestand fairest player in his secondseason with Wanderers in 2003-04.

A member of last season’s losinggrand final side, Karpany said the’09 Eagles needed to lift theirfitness level in a bid to get back intothe finals race.

While agreeing wholesalechanges every week were upsettingteam balance, he said every playerneeded to take a good look at theirown form and fitness.

‘‘They’ve got to be honest withthemselves and do a lot more workaway from the training track,’’he said.

‘‘There’s no doubt there are

players carrying a few extra kilos

and they need to get rid of them to

be able to play their best footy.’’

Karpany played his first 22

games in a St Marys jumper before

joining Wanderers in the 2002-03

season.

‘‘Mark Motlop was coach in those

days and got hold of ‘‘Popsy’’

Collard and myself to join the

club after a season in Ballarat,’’

he recalled.

‘‘Popsy pulled out but I went on

with it and swapped jumpers. I

haven’t regretted it.’’

Karpany (pictured) has played

in every mainland state, including

the West Perth reserves in Perth.

He won a premiership with Port

Douglas in the Cairns competition

in 2005 when he kicked the winning

goal after the siren.

And Karpany finally settled the

debate on his first name and why

he answers to Tim or Colin.

‘‘Colin is my real name but I was

called Jim from an early name

after my grandfather,’’ he said.

‘‘I got Tim when my two-year-old

cousin couldn’t pronounce Jim and

it’s stuck with me.’’

Brave show by NT pugilistsMICHAEL Sacco’s brave pointsloss to defending light heavy-weight champion Steve Lovetthighlighted the Territory’s per-formance at the national boxingtitles in Canberra.

Sacco showed that reputationscount for nothing in the middle ofa boxing ring, pressuring Lovettfor all three rounds before thejudges gave the West Australianthe nod.

Katherine fighter MalachiSheppard’s championship bidended with a points loss toVictorian Robert Smith in the

52kg junior division.

Darwin’s Byron Davis Jrpopped a shoulder in the fourthround of his 69kg youth fightagainst Tasmanian BadenBellan, forcing the referee to stopthe contest.

Bellan, who was ahead onpoints when the injury occurred,went on to win the gold medal inhis division

Sammy Jewell (57kg) andWilliam Wesley (50kg junior)were stopped in the first round oftheir fights.

Boxing NT president Boyd

Scully said the quality of Sacco’s

performance ensured he would

fight at the Commonwealth

Games trial in Perth next year.

‘‘Michael showed little regard

for reputations and is a walkup to

fight at the Games trials,’’

he said.

‘‘Hopefully we’ll get some more

NT fighters at the trials, particul-

arly now some Alice Springs

boxers are coming back to Box-

ing NT.’’

— GREY MORRIS

Dunser outof nationalage titlesDARWIN tennis playerKassandra Dunser is outof the Optus 14-yearsAustralian SinglesChampionships.

She lost in three sets toseventh seed Stefani Stojicin a rained-delayedquarter-final atMelbourne Park.

Top seed Dunser wasbeaten 7-5 4-6 6-1 by herAustralian junior squadteammate.

The victory was sweetrevenge for the home-town player.

Dunser beat Stojic toclinch the Optus 14-yearsWinter Nationals title onclay in Perth inSeptember, 2008.

The Territorian willnow focus on the Optus16-years national titleswhich start at the samevenue on Monday.

The Australian 12-yearsteam champions begintoday in Melbourne.

Ben Lye and KaelanBates, both from Darwin,will represent the NT inthe boys’ division, the RodLaver Cup.

The girls’ side, playingfor the Margaret CourtCup, comprises BrookeMilner and Tenille Watersfrom Darwin and AliceSprings’ Melanie Usher.

Territorians join Cowboys ‘nursery’THREE budding Territ-

ory rugby league players

have been farmed off to

the Cowboys nursery.

Darwin teenagers Ado

Waianga (pictured), 15,

Chris Smith, 15, and

David Munro, 14, joined

a group of 34 young

players from across

Australian and New Zea-

land in Townsville this

week for a five-day inten-

sive training camp with

NRL side North Queens-

land Cowboys.

Players will be im-

mersed in the every-day

happening of elite foot-

b a l l e r s , b e i n g p u t

through their paces in

skills and conditioning

field sessions with the

NRL and Toyota Cup

coaching staff, weight

training with athletic

performance manager

G l e n M u r p h y a n d

stretching and nutrition

sessions with strength

and conditioning coach

Billy Johnstone.

The Cowboy proteges

will also gain an insight

i n t o t h e r o l e t h a t

attitude and behaviour

play in the career of a

professional athlete

through a session with

the club’s psychologist.

North Queensland re-

cruitment manager Clint

Zammit believes that the

camp serves as both an

i n t e r n s h i p f o r t h e

players and a progressreview for the Cowboyscoaching staff.

‘‘We’ll be testing thekids through the week togive us a gauge on howthey’re going, as well asseeing how they’ve pro-gressed during their timewith us as contractedplayers,’’ Zammit says.

‘‘The camp is very im-portant to our recruit-ment and developmentprogram, as it is the onlytime we have our elitejunior contract playerstogether at one time,where we can monitorand compare them.’’

Bellamystays athelm forBlues

SYDNEY: NSW Rugby Leaguechief executive Geoff Carr says noone is more qualified than CraigBellamy to lead the Blues in nextseason’s State of Origin series.

NSW announced yesterday thatMelbourne’s Bellamy will con-tinue as coach despite leadingthe Blues to two successiveseries defeats.

‘‘He is the best coach in the gameand we have only lost the last two

series by a hair’s breadth,’’ Carrsaid. ‘‘We feel with some excitingyoung players like the Morrisbrothers and Michael Jenningscoming through we have a greatchance of winning the next series.’’

Carr also admitted that selectorshadn’t always made the rightchoices, but said the emergence ofplayers such as Jarryd Hayne andAnthony Watmough as superstarswill give the Blues the edge in 2010.