Griffith Swans women's side showed plenty of character in their fifth-placed playoff clash with Brookdale Bluebirds in Lockhart on Thursday night.
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Brookdale was able to get their only goal of the first half and went into halftime with a three-point advantage.
After withstanding some early second-half pressure from the Swans, the Bluebirds were able to get their second of the game before Mel Bonetti was able to get on the end of a ball over the top and running into an open goal to bring the margin back to three points.
A snap from the boundary from the Brookdale side saw them enter the final break with a nine-point advantage.
After having the ball locked in the forward fifty for most of the final term, Emilee Preston was able to bring the margin back to three points however the Swans were only able to kick another behind to see Brookdale take a 3.1 (19) to 2.5 (17) victory.
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Coach Trevor Richards was left a little bit frustrated with a number of clear cut decisions not going his side's way.
"I was a bit disturbed by a few of the calls," he said.
"I can handle the 50-50s, but there were a couple where some of our girls were poleaxed, and nothing was done about it, so I wasn't happy about that."
Despite that, Richards was proud of the way his side played, given the difficult situation his side found themselves in.
"We had a couple of injuries and a couple of people who couldn't make it, so we played with 14 and credit to them they played 14-on-14," he said.
"That meant they had quite a few on the bench to be able to run fresh bodies on, which helps."
While the result didn't go the way Richards wanted, it was the clear improvement throughout the season which pleased the Swans coach most.
"There were three or four of the girls there at the start of the year who could hardly pick a ball up, catch it and kick it and didn't know how to handle any chance," he said.
"There were a couple of patches there tonight and a couple of others during our last couple of rounds where we strung four or five handballs together to get out the other side and create opportunities. It was good to watch."
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