Sport
5 September, 2025
MCDFNL Football Preliminary Final Preview: Trentham vs Navarre
Navarre will look to follow their enthralling semi-final upset over Talbot when they take on one of the premiership favourites in Trentham on Saturday.
The 2025 season has been a resurgence year for the Grasshoppers, following their absence from the finals with four victories in their previous campaign.
Not content with just participating, Navarre have been the surprise package of the finals series with a commanding win over Dunolly before surprising the Hawks with two late goals from Sam Rickard and Aaron Slorach.
According to senior coach Kyle Hendy, a key factor to Navarre’s successful finals campaign so far has been their aggressive mindset.
“We didn’t go back into our shell and go all defensive. We were able to keep attacking and kept fighting on the whole game, whereas in previous games we would have tightened up a little bit if they got a few goals,” he said.
“Our forward line has worked the best it has all year in the last two weeks, especially on Sunday. It seemed more open and we were able to hit the right targets moving into the forward line, which allowed us to apply more scoreboard pressure.
“We will be focused on the same things again, just playing our style of football and not being put into our shells. We have got a lot of belief after having two good wins, so hopefully we can carry that on.
“We had a 70-point deficit to Talbot throughout the year and were able to make that up on Sunday, so there’s no reason why we can’t make anything up against Trentham.”
While the Grasshoppers will look to maintain their white-hot form, Saints’ senior coach Mark Adamson said he is looking for noticeable improvement from his team after just surpassing Harcourt in their qualifying final.
“We didn’t play well and we certainly played under expectations, but the great thing for us was we were able to get the job done,” he said.
“I think to come from our early deficit in a low-scoring game gives us a fair bit of belief going forward.
“I’ve got to make sure now that we lift our performance and make sure that we play consistently and start better.”
While he’s certainly happy to see the Saints back in the final four, Adamson said the week off has brought about some challenges, especially after their bye in the final round of the regular season.
“Everyone talks about top four, you’re getting the double chance, which is terrific and we couldn’t complain about going to a preliminary final, but you face the challenge of making sure we can perform after playing one game in three week,” he said.
“We haven’t got the continuity of football, so myself and the other coaches have got to make sure that we prepare ourselves properly because if we played a first quarter like that again, most of the time you lose those games.
“The advantage is guys get time to recover, we have got three really good players that we are hopeful we can get back.
“Ryan Thiesz and Edward Fanning who have been great for us and Travis Baird is probably the wildcard. He hasn’t played a lot of football but is a really experienced finals and grand final player.”