HE'S about to make his senior coaching debut, but Leeton-Whitton's Tom Groves already knows from past experience there's always a bit of extra 'spice' against Griffith.
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After having the bye in round one, the Crows get their season underway when they host the Swans in the MIA Derby on Saturday.
Groves, who has joined the club from Coleambally, played for Griffith in 2015 when he returned from a stint in Melbourne.
"There's usually a bit of extra spice in it," Groves said.
"The intensity will be right up there early. I've been on the other side of it when I played for Griffith, so I'm looking forward to it."
Griffith intensity and effort areas were one of the major positives to come from an encouraging 19-point round one loss to Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes.
The Crows will be without skipper Tom Meline (unavailable), and like Griffith will field an all-local side this season.
"There's some premiership experience in there, but also a good balance of youth coming through as well," Groves said.
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"It will be intriguing to see how we shape up, but I'm very happy with how everything is going.
"There'll be a couple of little tweaks, but we just want to build on what they did when they finished well last year."
Groves replaces Sam Darley after he quit the club with one year to go on his deal.
The midfielder was widely regarded as the best player in the game last year, but Groves is confident spreading the responsibility more evenly will help fill the void.
"He's obviously a really good player, but there's some great young fellas stepping up and we'll have more balance in our midfield," he said.
"You can't replace someone like that, but everyone has improved a bit more from last year after getting that experience.
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