Barwon Heads co-coach Mitchell Herbison says Torquay is stronger than last year as two Seagulls suffer injuries

Torquay was a class above Barwon Heads in its grand final rematch, and the Seagulls co-coach has made a call on their flag credentials. Plus, the Seagulls suffered an injury blow.

Torquay recorded its 15th straight win.

Barwon Heads co-coach Mitchell Herbison has declared that Torquay is stronger than last year, labelling the Tigers as “really powerful”.

The Seagulls stunned Torquay on grand final day in 2022 but the Tigers were a class above them on Saturday, winning by 41-points to bring up their 15th-straight victory since that heartbreaking loss.

Barwon Heads were short on the bench after concussion blows to Tom Swift and Luca Vella, with the Seagulls also opting to rest Oliver Wiltshire who picked up a minor injury.

Herbison said that recruits like former North Melbourne listed player Charlie Ham and Baxter Mensch have given the Tigers an extra edge this season.

Torquay comfortably defeated Barwon Heads on Saturday.

“I think they probably are a better team than last year, they’ve got a bunch of good young players. They’ve got a few on the Falcons list and that’s given them a fair bit of speed and a couple of the guys who have come into their team are really good players,” Herbison said.

“They’re obviously a really powerful club and they’ve got great depth on their list. They’re a tough team and we’ve got to get better.

“I think throughout the day they probably just outworked us a little bit, they seemed to outnumber us from contest to contest and in the end they sort of ran over the top. We weren’t off by much but they took their chances, they were clean with the ball and their pressure was good when we had it.

“They gave us a look at what the benchmark is and the type of footy that we need to play to compete with the best.”

The Seagulls loss leaves Drysdale just two points behind in the race for second spot after the Hawks knocked off Anglesea.

Herbison and his charges take on Anglesea in a finals-shaping blockbuster this week without Swift and Vella, but the player-coach remains optimistic that the Seagulls can improve.

“We’ve obviously got another strong opposition in Anglesea this week and they probably need a win to hold their spot in the finals so they are going to be up and about to take us down,” Herbison said.

“We’ve got a couple of tough games to go and we will obviously review the game from the weekend and try and fix up a few areas that Torquay were better than us in. There’s obviously still a fair bit of time left in the season so we are really optimistic that we can continue to improve and that’s our focus for the end of the year.”

Originally published as Barwon Heads co-coach Mitchell Herbison says Torquay is stronger than last year as two Seagulls suffer injuries