Griffith are one step closer to going through the home and away season undefeated after holding off Collingullie-Glenfield Park in a thriller on Saturday.
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The Swans survived their first close call all year by outlasting the Demons by two points on their home turf, 7.8 (50) to 7.6 (48) at Crossroads Oval.
It confirms the minor premiership for the Swans and the performance showed they are also just as capable in wet weather football, should it arrive in September.
But the Demons will take a lot of confidence from the clash, knowing they went seriously close to downing the Swans without a couple of key players, most notably dual Jim Quinn Medallist Jayden Klemke.
Griffith led all day. They started strongly in the wet conditions and opened up a 20-point lead by quarter time before the Demons kicked the only two goals of the second term to reduce the margin to seven points by the main break.
Griffith kicked the first two goals of the second half to clear out to a 20-point lead and then led by 19 points again when kicking the first goal of the final term.
The Demons kept coming however and led by a three-goal final term from coach Luke Gestier, they clawed back to get within two points, twice, before the final siren sounded.
Griffith coach Will Griggs was craving a finals-like game and was pleased to get it.
“They’re a quality team. We started very well. I couldn’t have been happier with our first quarter but a team of their quality, they’re always going to bounce back, on their home ground,” Griggs said.
“They responded very well and from then on, it was a lot of back and forth. They had momentum, then we got it back. It was just a very good hit-out, really.”
It was the first time anyone finished within three goals of Griffith. Griggs was pleased to see how his team handled the pressure late in the game.
“The boys showed a lot of maturity. We tried to chip it around a little bit towards the end just to try and milk the clock," he said.
“Games like that, you’ve just got to force stoppage after stoppage, lock it in and the boys did that fantastically.”
Griffith will now finish the season with games against MCUE and Wagga Tigers, before getting the first week of finals off.
It is the first time the Swans have finished the season on top since 2002.
Ben King was the Swans’ best on Saturday. He was closely followed by fellow midfielder Jordan Iudica.
Unfortunately, they lost Reece Matheson to a shoulder injury.
Tom Keogh won a heap of the footy in the midfield for the Demons, while Marc Geppert and Luke Gestier both kicked three goals each.
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