Rochester’s Mitch Trewhella has enjoyed a golden premier division season in the Nightcliff engine room, and after taking out the Tiger's best-and-fairest, the Joe Bonson Medal, the gun on-baller has helped bulldoze a path straight through to next Saturday’s grand final at TIO Stadium.
Trewhella featured in Nightcliff’s best players in the Tigers’ 23-point qualifying win over St Mary’s before playing a key hand in dismantling minor premier Southern Districts by 49 points at the weekend.
It’s good signs for not just the Morrison Medal runner-up, but also the GVL Tigers’ faithful with the season only a month away.
But while Trewhella prepares for his second grand final in six months, heartbreak struck Pint Football Club and its Goulburn Murray trio after their remarkable historic run.
Congupna forward Jak Trewin, Road teammate James Boyer, and former Tatura player Brad Ryan’s finals series came to a halt in an all-time NTFL thriller, surrendering a 13-point lead in the final quarter and falling short by four points.
A week before, Trewin, who will call Ovens & Murray club Myrtleford home in 2026, had played the hero in a two-point elimination final thriller against Waratah, booting the match-winner to seal the Greenants’ first ever premier division finals victory.
He then backed it up with a game-high three majors against St Mary’s, including two in quick succession in the last stanza to hand the Greenants the edge.
A late Jack Landt goal dashed Pint’s hopes of a preliminary final berth, instead handing Shepparton Swans turned Lancaster defender Luke Davies a shot at another NTFL premiership.
Davies, a 2024 premiership player with the Saints, has been a mainstay of the line-up once again, and if his club can conquer Southern Districts in Saturday’s blockbuster preliminary final then further glory could be his.
Meanwhile, Rochester export and VFLW premiership player Sarah Ingram, alongside former Nathalia pair Reni Hicks and Ellen Pinnuck, has also made it through to the penultimate weekend of the NTFL season.
