Darwin knew it had to bounce back against Waratah at TIO Stadium and that’s exactly what happened.

Following on from a 50-point defeat to Nightcliff, the Buffaloes responded to beat Waratah by 13 points having led at every change.

The 12.11 (83) to 10.10 (70) win was not the double blues’ best, but it left Matt Campbell a proud coach after the match.

“It was an important one because it puts us a game in front of (Waratah),” Campbell said.

“Every time you want to win, you want to win big, but to Waratah’s credit, they have quality players and it showed - their fitness is right up there.

“Our boys died in the arse there in the last quarter, but that’s two weeks in row we’ve had no rations on the bench at the end. Good footy teams fight their way through that and that’s what we’ve done.”

Adam Sambono was superb in a forward role, finishing with four goals, including two back-to-back in the second quarter around his body.

But it was the Buffs defenders who most impressed Campbell.

“Obviously having (former North Melbourne stalwart) Michael Firrito back there helps,” Campbell said.

“But with Joey Anderson, Jordon Briston, and Kevin Maroney there … Jalen Clark as well, who played one of his better games. When you’ve got a back six which can lock everything down it helps. Waratah did score some goals, but I still thought we won the battle.”

‘Tahs coach Ryan Ayres said his group was disappointed to not go on with it and steal a victory.

“The game was there to be won,” Ayres said.

“I was really proud of the way the boys fought the game out, but I thought there were chances there where we could’ve executed our game plan a little bit better and it may have been a different result if we did that.”

Abe Ankers was strong for the Warriors in the middle, as was Cameron Barrett, while Timmy Mosquito played with class from the back.