Torquay’s 19-point win against a desperate Barwon Heads in the final round of the season was just the hit-out required according to coach Dom Gleeson.
The Tigers now have a week’s rest before fronting up for their second semi-final against the winner of Anglesea and Drysdale this weekend.
In a high-quality contest with a finals-like atmosphere and weather, Torquay proved just that bit too good when it mattered and ended the Seagulls season.
“We wanted that,” Gleeson said.
“We’ve had quite a good lead up into this finals campaign – we played Portarlington only two weeks ago and they scored pretty freely against us so there’s a lot to improve on. Even though we ended up beating them by almost 100 points, we certainly got some things we wanted to work on and we had to go to work, certainly against Barwon Heads and they’re very stiff to not get through to be fair.”
Harrison King threatened to take the game away from Torquay at various stages and Gleeson said he was forced to move Chase Loftus onto him.
“He (King) was a bit of a worry late in the game, so we sent a tag to him late in the game just to try and shut him out because I think he was going to be the difference if they got over the line or not and it proved to be quite a good decision to make.
“Chase is a midfielder in his own right, but unfortunately for Chase we’ve got lots of good midfielders and he’s probably got more strings to his bow where he could play in multiple positions, so we’ve been sending him to a wing, half-forward and half-back, so that’s just proved how good a key is and to have that ability to roll to different positions for the course of the game is a real asset.”
Gleeson said his charges would attend both finals this weekend, with Drysdale and Anglesea playing for the right to meet his side the following Saturday.
“I just look forward to Saturday – hopefully it’s a cracking day and they belt into each other all day and we get to face the best team out of both of them,” he said.
QUALIFYING FINALS
At Portarlington, Saturday August 17
Seniors: Drysdale vs Anglesea at 2pm
Reserves: Geelong Amateur vs Drysdale at 11.45am
ELIMINATION FINALS
At Portarlington, Sunday August 18
Seniors: Geelong Amateur vs Modewarre at 2pm
Reserves: Barwon Heads vs Queenscliff at 11.45am
