Griffith captain James Toscan says there is a sense of unfinished business about the Swans as they prepare for the club’s first grand final in 14 years.
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There is few players in the Griffith team that have a better understanding of the Swans journey to the grand final then their skipper.
Toscan made his debut as a 16-year-old in 2005 and, apart from three seasons with Avondale Heights in the Essendon District Football League, has been at the club ever since.
It will be Toscan’s first senior grand final and he cannot wait.
“It feels good. We set ourselves a goal at the start of the year to make it to the grand final so it’s a pretty good feeling to have achieved that goal,” Toscan said.
“I guess it’s probably a combination of what we’ve been of what we’ve been working on for the past three years.”
But while satisfied to win through to the big dance, Toscan said the Swans are determined not to stop there.
“I reckon it has sunk in that we’re there now but there’s a real feeling of the job’s not done yet,” he said.
“In comparison to last year, we limped through the finals series a bit, we had some pretty sore boys going into it. Whereas the feeling after Sunday’s game was pretty good and was a barometer to where we are and where we stand at the moment.
“Obviously we had to lift a fair bit, we were down, but we came back and got the win.”
Toscan, 28, has almost played in every position on the ground for the Swans over the past decade.
This year he has found a home at full-back and claimed the scalp of some of the best forwards in the competition during Griffith’s outstanding home and away season.
He has enjoyed the role and understands he will get another big job in Saturday’s grand final against Collingullie-Glenfield Park at Narrandera Sportsground.
“I’ve really enjoyed it, especially the group we’ve got down there, it’s the older portion of the team,” he said.
“I’ll get (Marc Geppert), when he goes down there and it’s good fun to play on him, it’s always a good battle.
“I always thought full-back was just following someone around all day but there’s definitely a lot more to it than that.”
Toscan believes the key to a Griffith premiership on Saturday is run.
“I think it’s our run and not having that fear of losing or making a mistake,” he said.
“We’ve just got to run. It’s going to be the perfect weather for it and it’s going to suit our game style. We want to open the game up, that would be pretty big and will go a long way towards us getting the chocolates.”
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