Griffith is abuzz as the club attempts to end a 15-year premiership drought in the Riverina League grand final at Narrandera Sportsground on Saturday.
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The Swans, on the back of an undefeated home and away season, have won through to their first decider since 2004.
Griffith coach Will Griggs said the western edge of the competition is pumping this week ahead of the showdown against Collingullie-Glenfield Park.
“There’s a few shops around town that have got red and white everywhere,” Griggs said.
“It’s been a while between drinks, not just for us but for our reserves as well so it’s going to be a big day for the club playing in both grades so hopefully we can get the job done.”
Griggs moved from Canberra to Griffith in 2015, alongside good mates Ben King and Sam Daniel.
At a time when weekly trips from Canberra to play bush footy was in vogue, the trio committed wholly to the Swans by going one step further and packing up their lives to move to Griffith.
After three seasons as a player at Griffith, Griggs stepped up to the coaching duties this year and said it would mean an enormous amount to him if he could lead the Swans to a long-awaited premiership.
“We moved here, myself, Ben King and Sam Daniel, all moved here from Canberra,” he said.
“We had the plan that we wouldn’t leave until we had some success so that puts it to you right there, it would be pretty big.”
While Griggs will lead the Swans into battle on Saturday, he gives a lot of the credit for Griffith’s rise to the man he replaced, Adrian Pavese.
“I’m not going to take all the credit,” he said.
“It’s been a three-year process with the coach before me, Adrian Pavese, who I’m good friends with.
“We sat down and basically started again at the start. Taught them all how to play senior footy again, the tricks of the trade and we’ve steadily been getting better.
“Obviously we’ve played finals the last two years, made the prelim last year and to go down to Collingullie hurt and we’ve still got the memory in our heads so hopefully we can get a bit of payback.”
Griggs made a couple of small changes to the Griffith game plan at the start of the year.
One was for the Swans to move the ball quicker and it is a decision he concedes was an important one.
“Yeah pretty crucial I think. When you’ve got so many young kids that like to take the ball under the arm and run, you’ve got to give them the freedom to do that,” he said.
“The last few years we’ve probably had a more possession type game plan where this year we take a few more risks and just say go, and some of the older heads can sit back and watch them run.”
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