Sport
9 September, 2025
Trentham eye 31-year vindication after prelim victory
One word is on the mind of the Trentham faithful. Redemption.
The Saints have the chance to avenge last season’s grand final defeat and break their 31-year premiership drought after surviving a hard-fought preliminary final over Navarre by eight points.
Trailing by 10 points at quarter time, Trentham booted five unanswered goals in the second term to build a lead they didn’t relinquish despite a late rally from the Grasshoppers that fell agonisingly short.
“I thought when we got clear in the second quarter that maybe we were going to run over the top of them in the second half, but it was probably nearly the opposite to be fair,” Trentham senior coach Mark Adamson said.
“Navarre, to their credit, have improved a lot. They have got a couple of very good players, they were really running on strong and we definitely struggled playing two games in four weeks.
“We were able to sort of control the momentum late, which is a credit to the players. To be able to win two close finals is bad in one respect because we haven’t played as well as we can, but it’s demonstrated to the group that we can find a way to get over the line.”
The Saints had some major team news ahead of this match, with Edward Fanning and Ryan Thiesz coming in for Ryder Henchie and Zane French.
With a noticeable wind gusting towards the scoreboard end at Carisbrook Recreation Reserve, the Grasshoppers decided to have first use of the wind after winning the toss.
After the two teams shared early behinds, Brady Tillig converted a high contact free kick into the first goal of the game to give Navarre an early advantage.
After Tillig’s opener, superstar Joel Cowan and AFL legend Brent Harvey began to take control of the contest.
However, despite their first goal through club legend Jake Keogh, the Saints were wasteful with multiple clear-cut chances.
Jack Mentha and Riley Bibby made Trentham pay with two late goals in the term to head into quarter time with a 10-point advantage.
Similar to their qualifying final versus Harcourt, the Saints were on the back foot, needing to respond to early resistance.
After being held goalless by Navarre captain Jayden Fowkes in the opening quarter, Trentham talisman James Regan finally found some space away from Fowkes and unleashed a dazzling snap from 40 out to kickstart a run that regained the Saints’ control.
After Cooper Webber-Mirkin kicked them into the lead nine minutes into the quarter, the Saints booted three swift goals, featuring Cowan latching onto a brilliant Webber-Mirkin tap and bulldozing through two tackles to kick one of the goals of the finals series, helping to power the favourites to a 23-point half time lead.
Now it was Navarre who needed to answer rapidly at the start of the second half to wrestle back control.
Just like Trentham, the Grasshoppers rose to the challenge, threatening to disintegrate the Saints’ lead.
A double from key forward Aaron Slorach, including one after a rundown on Rhys Smith, brought the margin down to 10 points eight minutes into the third quarter.
Trentham’s defence remained stout for the rest of the quarter, holding their opponents to an extra two points while an outstanding intercept mark inside 50 from Taylor Ford set up a Harvey goal to give the Saints a 14-point cushion heading into the fourth quarter.
It didn’t take long for the minor premiers to make the margin 20 points, thanks to a well-taken snap from Thomas Fuller inside a minute, putting Navarre in serious trouble.
When they needed it most, a three-punch combo from Slorach, Wil Clough and Oliver Notting left Trentham stunned, with the match back to within a kick 10 minutes into the final quarter.
Navarre looked on the verge of completing another historic come-back, applying relentless pressure in the contest and keeping the football in their attacking half for the majority of the quarter.
However, the Saints only needed one chance to ice the game.
With only three minutes left to play, Trentham were awarded a downfield free kick, which was given to Harvey 20 metres out.
The AFL Hall of Famer made no mistake, delivering the dagger to send the Saints to back-to-back grand finals.
“Our backline probably won us the game, I think Ford and Alister Ferrier across half back probably were the ones who stopped the flood and allowed us to rebound and hang on,” Adamson said.
“We made a decision when we were against the breeze in the third to play with Ferrier virtually playing as a loose man (in defence). He took a couple of marks in the third and fourth quarters that helped us win the game.
“Brandon Jensen was also very good on the half-back flank, he did a really good job and won a lot of one-on-ones.
“In that last quarter, I saw five of six individual desperation efforts that we probably hadn’t produced all day. Some guys stood up and did stuff that probably saved the game.”