Battle of the Breaks to take centre stage

A GRAND final three years in the making, Torquay and Barwon Heads will again go head-to-head for the right to be crowned Bellarine Football League (BFL) premiers this Saturday at Grinter Reserve.

The Seagulls’ 36-point win over Drysdale last Saturday confirmed the rematch of the 2019 Grand Final, and Barwon Heads captain Mitch Herbison said his side was “pumped” for the challenge to take on Torquay once more in 2022.

“Right now we’ve just got to ride the momentum into the Grand Final.

“We’ll look to put our best footy on the park this week and have a real good crack at Torquay, who has obviously had a really unbelievable two seasons.”

The two sides got a recent look at one another in the Second Qualifying Final at Portarlington, which had a disappointing result for the Seagulls, going down by 75 points.

“We’ve got to win the footy whenever it’s in dispute against Torquay,” Herbison said.

“We were able to get our running game going against Drysdale and we were able to get the footy when it was up for grabs as a result.

“It’s got to be the same this week and not allowing Torquay to get easy balls forward. We’ll look to get our bigger bodies involved and feed it out to our runners.”

Torquay captain Ben Raidme was one of the Tigers on the field during 2019’s Grand Final loss to Barwon Heads, and while that specific loss might be a motivator leading into this year’s decider, it isn’t the main one for his side.

“It would be nice to get one back and square up the ledger a bit, but I don’t think that is the sole motivator,” he said.

“It’s a new day, a new game and we expect things to be similar yet pretty different in terms of matchups, style and playing the new ground for what it is.

“We don’t want to get ahead ourselves from two weeks ago and think this game is going to be easy, because it’s quite the opposite, really.”

The Tigers’ skipper said this Saturday’s clash was about more than football, and thanked AFL Barwon for its efforts over the past three years.

“It’s fantastic for us and Barwon Heads, also Drysdale and Torquay in the reserves, for all of us to be able to represent our communities, that’s what it’s all about at the end of the day.

“This time around we’re lucky enough to do it on Grand Final Day, which is awesome.”

Torquay will go for a ninth premiership flag on Saturday, while Barwon Heads hopes to add a sixth to its premiership shelf.

The opening bounce is scheduled for 1.30pm.