Griffith champion Mick Duncan has declared himself a certain starter for the Swans in Saturday’s Riverina League grand final.
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Duncan sustained a grade one tear to his quadriceps during Sunday’s preliminary final win over Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong.
He sat out Griffith’s training on Tuesday night but is feeling fit and has declared it is ‘all systems go’ for the decider against Collingullie-Glenfield Park at Narrandera Sportsground.
“It’s a grade one tear but on the lighter end of the scale. I could have trained (Tuesday) night,” Duncan said.
“I was amazed by the amount of improvement in the first 24 to 48 hours so I’ll train on Thursday night.
“It feels better now than my right one did a couple of weeks ago and I played with it so it’s all systems go.”
Duncan is the only member of Griffith’s 2003 premiership team still playing at the Swans. He played in three consecutive grand finals from 2002 to 2004.
Duncan has not played in another grand final since and admits that drought certainly makes him appreciate what lies ahead of him on Saturday.
“Without a doubt. I had played three grand finals by the time I was 21 and you do take it for granted,” he said.
“We had a period of 10 years where we didn’t play finals so that makes me realise how hard they are to come by and how quickly you can go from playing in a grand final to not even playing in finals.
“It’s a good learning curve and we’ve made sure to make a point of that to our younger blokes.”
At 35, Duncan has done it all at Griffith. He is a premiership player, seven-time best and fairest winner and Team of the Century member.
He is also keen not to make Saturday his last game.
“After this week I’ll be on 298 games,” he said.
“The body is feeling ok and once again, after not playing finals for 10 years it’s hard to walk away while you’re having some success.”
Duncan believes the stability of the current Griffith playing group is what makes it stand out from the rest.
“Through the 10 years we didn’t make finals, we would get good recruits that would stay one year and go,” he said.
“The next year we would have to start from scratch again. Our recruits now are the same blokes we’ve had for a few years.”
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