GRIFFITH Swans coach Guy Orton said it’s final or bust for his side as they slog it out during an intensive pre-season training program.
After several disappointing years for the club and its supporters, the Swans narrowly missed out on the Riverina Football League finals last season by mere percentage points.
Buoyed by the inclusion of Orton, Che Jenkins, Tom Buckley and Beau Runnalls, the Swans were more than competitive against most sides in the competition.
But after coming so close to post-season action, Orton said he and his men are determined to leave nothing to chance this season.
“At the very first training session I told the boys it’s finals and nothing less, so that’s where we are aiming,” Orton said.
“Training is going really well and all of the boys are really keen to get stuck into the season.”
Orton himself made a splash winning the Jim Quinn Medal in his first season in red and white, but the classy midfielder will have an advantage in 2012, having gone through a comprehensive preparation.
“It is great to have a decent pre-season, myself and a couple of the other guys have been living here for a fair while now so we’re into a good routine,” he said.
“So it’s just good to be training with the guys right from the start.
“And I was speaking with one of our signings and he’ll be training with the side from mid-February which is good because it won’t be like what we did and got here one week and were then playing the next.”
Unlike previous seasons, where Griffith struggled to attract new blood, the Swans have been inundated by quality signings.
New players Stuart Cooper and Andrew Hawkins will line up this season, while favourite son Tim Matheson is also making a return to Exies Oval.
Orton said he had heard good things about Matheson and said he looked to have shaken off most of the effects of a dislocated hip he sustained last year while playing for Tullibigeal in the Northern Riverina Football League.
While Orton, Buckley and Jenkins have committed themselves to the club, The Area News asked if the club had heard of Runnalls’ intentions.
“I’ve spoken to Che (Jenkins) and he’s talked to him a bit, but last thing I heard was that he’d signed with a team in Queensland,” Orton said.
“I got him to come down here, and when I said to the other boys at the end of last season ‘I’m signing on as a coach and I need to know what you’re doing’ Che said he’d stay and Beau said he didn’t know what he was doing yet.
“But apparently he’s been saying the Griffith Swans didn’t want him, but that’s not the case at all.
“We gave him the chance and he said he wasn’t ready, and went to Darwin and then went to Melbourne, so we’re not sure what he’s doing at this stage.”
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