Torquay coach Dom Gleeson has hailed his team’s final-quarter effort as the Tigers booked a spot in the Bellarine grand final following a 31-point second semi-final over Queenscliff.
In at times unbearable conditions at Portarlington Recreation Reserve, Torquay locked away a spot in its fifth decided in six completed seasons with a 14.11 (95) to 8.16 (64) victory.
After a tight first half, the Tigers used the breeze with effect in the third quarter, kicking six goals to two, to turn a four-point deficit into a 23-point buffer at the final change.
“I said post-game that I’ve got a couple of quarters over my time of coaching that I look back on and go ‘Wow! That’s pretty impressive’, and that’ll be one of them.
“It wasn’t pretty, so there were no real highlights, but we really locked in as a group and shut the game down.
“23 points ahead, I wasn’t really confident that that was going to be enough because the wind was howling one way and with the ability Queenscliff’s got to score quickly.
“But we’ve trained and played enough of that lockdown game that we think we can do it for full quarters, and the boys did it brilliantly, and it helped we scored a couple of goals against the tide as well.”
Hugh Trigg’s reputation as a big game player continues to grow, following up his four-goal effort in the qualifying final win over Geelong Amateur with a five-goal performance against Queenscliff.
“He was super,” Gleeson said. “Probably the opportunities when we lowered our eyes and used him were very good/
“But he’s just so good in the air, and he really made the most of his opportunities.
“We were pretty true in front of goal compared to last week, (where) as a team we were pretty poor, but we turned it around.”
Ruck Jack Thompson was a standout, regularly giving first use to Matt Boag and Tynan Smith, who also kicked three goals, in the Torquay midfield.
Co-captains Ben McNamara and James Darke were also impressive, with McNamara again marshalling the Tigers’ defence.
Izaac Grant, Nick Rippon and Jordy Monahan each kicked two goals for Queenscliff, which was held to their second-lowest score of the year.
The Coutas will use their double chance in next week’s preliminary final, where they’ll face the winner of the first semi-final between Geelong Amateur and Newcomb.
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