As the last embers of the 2025 Northern Territory Football League grand final day dwindled, two Southern Districts teammates — a former Port Adelaide pair — were fresh off winning the flag when the topic of the upcoming winter football season arose with a spark.
Tom Clurey (124 games at Port Adelaide) and Steven Motlop (135 games at Geelong and 82 at Port Adelaide) spoke about making an appearance together at Clurey's junior football club Katamatite.
In good news for Tigers supporters, the club announced on Tuesday that the duo would reunite on the field for the club’s home match against Berrigan in round 13.
Katamatite president Casey Brown said he was excited to see the mercurial Motlop patrolling the Tigers' forward line.
“(Motlop) does love community clubs, he loves getting down, meeting new people and having a chat,” Brown said.
“It was more of, not a charity thing for Steven, but it’s something he actually likes to do anyway, so it wasn’t really a hard sell (to get him to the club).
“When you have a player of his capability, you just stick him up forward and give him as much space up forward.
“Maybe put one of our local small forwards up there like a Will Simpson or someone like that and let him learn the craft alongside someone who has been the best at it.”
While the Tigers are excited and thankful for Motlop’s arrival, Brown said the former AFL gun’s appearance would be a one-off.
Brown believes when clubs discard their own to make room for a temporary injection of talent it can cause problems.
“We just had to work out with our senior side, because there are already a few that miss out (on selection) who are senior standard, and then we have so many reserves players, we just didn’t want to do wrong by our locals,” he said.
“We are pretty locally orientated at Katty. We don’t want to upset someone and there are a lot of people that have worked pretty hard to get a chance to win finals or be in a final.
“I have seen football clubs upset players by doing that and not get the ultimate goal anyway, so while it would be a luxury to have (Motlop for more games), it is not something that we will do with the risk of denying someone who has earned it over the last 10 years.”
Motlop’s magic on the field will be matched off it as he and Clurey will feature in a sportsman’s lunch prior to the game with tickets available via the club’s Facebook page.
After a stint on the sidelines due to an MCL injury, Clurey has a chance to return for his third game of the season this weekend for Katamatite’s clash against Deniliquin.
If the Tigers err on the side of caution, Brown said Clurey would definitely be suiting up alongside Motlop for the match against the Saints the weekend after.
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