The Swans rebounded after two winless seasons to finish the regular season in third place and headed to Narrandera to take on CSU in the semi-final.

While the university side dominated the first quarter and had the ball pinned in their forward fifty, they could only manage a single behind heading into the first break.

It took until five minutes into the second quarter for the first goal to be kicked with the Bushpigs kicking two in quick succession to take a 12-point lead into halftime.

Two quick goals for the CSU side at the start of the third term gave them a 24-point lead before Maree Cirillo kicked the Swans' first major of the game.

The Bushbigs kicked the only goal of the fourth term, keeping their season alive with a 5.2 (32) to 1.3 (9) win over the Swans.

While the result wasn't what the Griffith side was looking for, coach Trevor Richards was full of pride for his side's efforts.

"The girls made a really big improvement, and I'm really proud of their effort," he said.

"They had eight to ten girls on the bench, and we had one, and that is always going to make it difficult on a ground the size of Narrandera. By the end, all of the girls were knackered, and that's what hurts more than anything.

"We had a couple of opportunities to score another couple of goals, and to their credit, they made the most of their chances while we didn't.

"The final score doesn't show the competitiveness of the game. They probably had the better field position, but most of the game was close."

Richards felt that the constant improvement from the entire squad was the most pleasing aspect of the season.

"Some of the girls have never touched a footy before in their life or have not played any AFL," he said.

"You could tell that they enjoyed it, and not to say they haven't enjoyed the last couple of years, but it does make it more enjoyable to be winning."

While hopeful that most of the squad would return for the 2025 season, the Swans coach feels it's time for AFL Riverina to take the plunge and run the women's season alongside the men's.

"The hardest part I find having talked to the girls over the last three or four years is that we'd have a lot of girls that said that if this was played alongside the men as a full season this would be their sport," he said.

"Because we play the in-between type of season, it can be hard to commit because they are playing other sports. They enjoy it, but it gets in the way a bit because it isn't a full-blown season.

"I'd like to see them bite the bullet and give them a fair dickum season and see what happens. I know they have concerns about sides struggling with netball because a lot of the girls do both, but you don't know what will happen until you actually give it a crack."