GRIFFITH Swans coach Guy Orton laid down the law to his team in the lead-up to their Riverina Football League clash with Turvey Park this weekend – we cannot back off.
The mantra has been adopted so the red and whites continue to play their style of football against the winless Bulldogs, with the game an ideal chance for the Swans to boost their percentage.
Griffith let a chance to defeat arch rival Leeton-Whitton slip through its fingers last round, and when that was combined with Coolamon and Narrandera’s upset wins, it saw the Swans slide out of the top five.
“It is hard to play a team like Turvey because you go into it thinking that everybody else has beaten them by a big score, so we have to do the same,” Orton said.
“Turvey on their day can be a pretty good side and move the ball well, we just can’t take them lightly.
“We can’t fall back into their style of football, we need a boost to our percentage on the ladder.”
To do that the Swans will need to capitalise on their good work further down field when they get in their attacking 50, with Griffith at times wasteful in their loss to the Crows, kicking 17 behinds.
But Orton, who has always sought to find the silver lining to each of Griffith’s five losses this season, said there were more positives than negatives as he leads his side into a vital part of the season.
“It was one that really hurt us, we were our own worst enemy really at times during the game (last weekend),” he said.
“I had a think about it after the game it was one that we did let go, it slipped, so it’s disappointing because we could have got the result we were after not what actually happened.
“We took away that we had lot more of the ball and our use if it was a lot better, but we’ll just work on the little things that need to be addresses.
“Mick (Duncan) will take training tonight (Wednesday) and we’ve spoken about what we need to do to make sure we’re right for this weekend.
“We’ll give them positive feedback because we don’t want each guy to be thinking ‘I missed three or five goals and that could of been the game’.
“It’s a team game and we’ll assess the loss as a team.”
In a special moment for the Blissett family, both Toby and younger brother Alex lined up alongside each other for the first time in the top grade, something Orton said could happen more of in the future.
“Turvey Park has been pretty good in their under 17s, so I haven’t spoken to Norm Campbell and Matt Noonan about maybe playing Alex in the 17s for a bit and then hopefully to be up with us,” he said.
“He (Alex) deserves another chance and we’ll give him that, because what he showed on the weekend means he’ll be in he mix.”
Tim Matherson is the only injury concern for Griffith heading into the clash, after favouring an ankle in the second quarter, with his status to be clarified closer to game time.