EXPERIENCED coach Adrian Pavese will return home to Griffith next season.
The Swans have announced Pavese as their senior coach for 2016 as he plans to fulfil the dream of his late father Ray and return to Griffith to lead the club.
A desire to spend more time in Griffith with family after his father’s recent passing paved the way for Pavese to take the Swans’ top job.
“It was something my dad had always been very keen on, me coming home eventually to coach Griffith,” Pavese said.
“Unfortunately he’s not going to be around to see it but I’ll still fulfil his dream by coming home and coaching the club where it all started.”
Griffith have opted to follow in the footsteps of Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes with a similar coaching structure.
Pavese is based in Canberra and will travel to Griffith late in the week for the final training and game days.
He replaces Brandon Mathews after his two seasons in charge.
The Swans will now appoint two senior assistant coaches to run training early in the week.
Pavese says a big part of his role will be to develop the club’s next coach from within the playing group.
His other main focus is to steer the Swans back to finals for the first time since 2006.
“The goal is to get back to finals, it’s been a fair drought,” he said.
“They’ve had some very good coaches in Guy Orton, Brandon Mathews and Damien Scott but we’ve just got to get back to finals.
“There are some great people involved who have the club going in the right direction, now the next thing is to get back into finals action.”
Pavese arrives after coaching Gungahlin this year in their promotion to AFL Canberra division one. He was also the club’s director of coaching.
He spent six years at Queanbeyan where he coached the club to three division one titles, as well as serving as NEAFL assistant coach.
Pavese coached Corowa-Rutherglen in the Ovens and Murray League in 2013, and for the past two years has been assistant coach of Melbourne’s women’s team.
Griffith president Jeff Harris was pleased to welcome a coach back to the club with so much experience.
“I think it’s a fantastic opportunity for us,” Harris said.
“Being where we are, there is only limited opportunities to get experienced coaches, especially as much as he has done.”
Griffith confirmed the losses of ruckman Michael Griffiths to Victoria and Tom Groves to Coleambally.
