While claiming the AFL Riverina Championship flag against Leeton-Whitton in Saturday's grand final would be a welcome update to his CV, the 26-year-old can already lay claim to being a world champion.

Grills was named male player of the tournament in Australia's World Polocross Cup win at Warwick, Queensland last year, with his sister Lucy claiming the female award.

The family work at Berragoon Australian Stock Horse Stud near Holbrook, where they put many painstaking hours into training horses to get ready for events.

Grills arrived at the Tigers this year from Albury Tigers after coronavirus forced the cancellation of the Ovens and Murray competition.

Albury teammate Jake Gaynor, boyfriend of Lucy, had already decided to join Wagga Tigers this year and didn't need to do much begging to convince Grills to follow suit.

"I was hoping to have a big (polocrosse) season on the back of last year but with COVID and nothing really being on, it's been pretty good to have the opportunity to play footy in Wagga," Grills said.

"It's a good bunch of blokes, probably a few more country blokes and I've become good mates with basically the whole team.

"When Jake asked if I wanted a game of footy I was keen, especially with no polocrosse being played.

"With Braydo (Albury Tigers teammate Brayden O'Hara coming over and Shaun Driscoll, it was an easy decision in the end.

"Having a lot of good players come into the league in such a short period of time and working out how to play with each other has been the biggest thing, but we've worked that out now."

Berragoon provided plenty of horses for last year's world cup, and Grills is looking forward to playing another pivotal role in the 2023 campaign in South Africa.

"The horses we take to the world cups are probably the age of seven to nine, and we're already starting to have a look at the horses we might get over there," Grills said.

"I got into it (polocrosse) when I was about six, and I've done it ever since.

"It's still a pretty physical game with a lot of corks and bruises, but obviously not the gut running footy has.

"You work on game play and understanding what the horse has in it, whether it likes to turn left or right or stops well.

"There's over 50s at the nationals so there's something you can do your whole life.

"Having Lucy and (cousin) Abbott in the side, you want to play with your family as much as you can but playing together at that level is pretty cool."

Grills says he has put the horse riding on the backburner during grand final week to avoid any chance of an injury, and an awkward conversation with Tigers coach Troy Maiden.

"I was speaking to him on Monday and he heard a couple of neighs in the background and he asked 'are you on a horse?'," he said.

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