Nesbitt plays the enforcer

Torquay wanted to make Mortimer Oval as big as possible and that involved getting the ball out to the Tigers’ running players.

Beaten on the inside in the semifinal loss, Nesbitt, James Darke and Dom Gleeson had to work hard at the coal face.

“We learned a lot from that first final. We wanted to get them on the outside, so we had to win the inside contest and then get it outside,” he said.

“We felt after the first final they were winning it on the inside and getting it on the outside as well.”

Nesbitt would smash away at the contest for a few minutes at a time and then charge to the interchange for a break.

Each time he would come off spent.

But the moment that best defined his role happened in the third quarter.

Riley Mattner was getting stuck into Torquay star Sam Wormald pretty hard. The attention he was getting started to rile the Tigers bench.

Want to guess who stood next to Mattner at the next contest?

It is fair to say the young Ammos midfielder was made to earn his next few possessions.

“I think the guys walk a little bit taller if we can bring that physicalityy as a side,” Nesbitt said.

“I suppose I really did set myself for this game.”

Nesbitt ran himself into the ground. He was not alone.

It was a theme highlighted earlier by club legend John McMahon. He spoke to players in the lead up to Saturday about leaving nothing in the tank.