THE TOSers’ season will continue for at least another week after Trinity Old Scholars won its Adelaide Footy League division six home elimination final against Marion on Saturday.
Trinity, which has now won its past six matches, jumped out to a terrific early lead after a deadeye first quarter in front of goals led to a 7.0 (42) to 2.3 (15) opening term.
Any threat of a blowout was quickly extinguished as the Rams dominated the second period, kicking six-goals-to-one to bring the game back level at 52-all at halftime.
Neither team was able to pull away in the third, with the TOSers winning the quarter 3.2 to 2.2, setting up a six-point margin heading into the final change of ends, with Marion to kick with the wind in the run home.
Ultimately, Trinity captain Dylan Winning said the breeze didn’t seem to matter all day, and his boys stood up when the action got hot.
“It was a massive first quarter by the boys, our ability to pressure and play our game plan has been exceptional early on in games,” he said.
“The second quarter was honestly hard to put a finger on what went wrong – we just lacked pressure and they had the run of it, and we got beaten well in the ruck and midfield, so if we can stop these lapses then we should start winning comfortably. “We were actually with the wind in the last quarter which doesn’t make much sense given the quarter-by-quarter scores, but it was whoever played better and had momentum.
“We had lots of guys stand up in the second half, up but Dom Barilla and Ryan Clarke were unreal in the last quarter.”
After a rough start to the shortened season, Winning said being in a must-win situation since very early in the season has hardened his squad to the ‘big game’ feel.
“It honestly wasn’t really difference in atmosphere than most of our games in the back end of the season,” he said.
“In a shorter season, lots of the big games have had that finals-like atmosphere.”
Trinity will play another elimination final at Blackfriars Old Scholars this Saturday in what should be a nail-biter after their August 1 matchup ended in a 97-92 TOSer win.