GRIFFITH'S celebration of club great Bill Tyndall was spoiled on Saturday by a rampant Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes outfit, thrashing the Swans by 45 points at Exies Oval.
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Winning 15.7 (97) to 6.7 (43), the Goannas broke away with a commanding five-goal second quarter before doling out further punishment in a damaging second half.
Wearing black armbands to honour Tyndall and Sally McCanna, who also passed away last week, the Swans stayed in touch early and were just one point in arrears after the first term but were let down thereafter by what coach Brandon Mathews described as "shocking" skill errors.
Mangoplah's Andrew Dickins was the main beneficiary of Griffith's mistakes, outscoring the Swans off his own boot with a seven-goal haul while Nick Casey kicked five for the visitors.
Damningly, the Swans scored just four goals to 13 after quarter-time.
"We did a lot of good things but it probably doesn't look like it," Mathews said.
"The effort was there, they had a go. I'm not going to pot them for that.
"Our contested footy was good but our skills were just terrible."
Griffith was not helped by the late withdrawal of Mathews and Mick Duncan, who both succumbed to injury on the morning of the game to join Dean Crack, Che Jenkins, Josh Hamilton and Trevor Richards on the sidelines.
Without the calming influence of those senior players the Swans were rushed into poor decisions and looked a long way from the side that troubled reigning RFL premiers Coolamon the week before.
"It's hard on your mindset when you've got so many guys out," Mathews said.
"Having so many young guys and first-gamers, it's not easy once you're behind to settle it down and try to get back into it - especially against a side like Mangoplah."
Defender James Taylor was again named Griffith's best along with Tom Webb, Guy Orton, Ben McRae and Daniel Peruzzi.
The loss leaves the Swans at 1-4 heading into the RFL representative bye with the side's finals chances fading further away with each loss.
But Mathews is still holding out hope of a top-five finish.
"This close to a bye, we're 1-4 and it looks horrible but we still reckon we're a real chance (of finals)," he said.
"Myself and Mick erred on the side of caution because it's only round five and if we get everyone back and we can play like we did against Coolamon, we should win quite a few to come."