GRIFFITH captain James Toscan says the Swans are riding a wave of confidence into Sunday’s preliminary final showdown with Collingullie-Glenfield Park.
The Swans are making a serious charge at the Riverina League premiership with sudden death finals wins over Coolamon and Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes under their belt.
They have been the club’s first finals wins in 11 years and Toscan said confidence is sky high at Griffith heading into their next challenge at Robertson Oval on Sunday.
“I’m bloody loving it, to be honest,” Toscan said.
“We’ve got a lot of confidence and we’re riding off that at the moment.”
Toscan was only a teenager when he was part of the Swans’ last winning finals campaign back in 2006.
That campaign ended with a preliminary final loss and the 27-year-old would love nothing more than to play in a grand final for the Swans.
“It would be huge,” he said.
“It would be huge for the club, volunteers, stalwarts of the club and the town itself.
“You can see last week at home for the final how massive the crowd was that got behind us. Everyone’s craving a bit of success, to be honest.
“And to play Leeton-Whitton in a grant final would even be a bit extra.”
Toscan credits Griffith’s rise to outgoing coach Adrian Pavese.
“It’s been a long time coming,” he said.
“There has been a few coaches in between, and a lot of changes. The club’s in a really good space now and that’s all been driven by Pav.
“He’s really banded everyone together.”
The Swans have come from behind in both finals wins.
They have trailed at every quarter break, but most importantly been in front at the full-time siren.
Toscan says the manner of those wins have created enormous belief.
“I think we can (win on Sunday). We’ve showed the last couple of weeks that anything can happen if we stay in the fight,” he said.
“We’ve got a heap of belief that as long as we’re close enough, we’re fit enough to finish hard and have a tilt at it. We know Gullie are going to be pretty tough, they’ve beaten us twice this year but we’re going in with confidence, that’s for sure.”
Toscan, who has played just about every position on the ground through his career, has played predominantly forward this year.
He is loving it.
“It’s a pretty exciting forward line to be in,” he said.
“I haven’t played in a more talented forward line, that’s for sure.”
