Round 1 - Saturday April 2, 2005
Riverina Football League
Venue: Griffith Exies Oval 5.00pm
Umpires: Duncan Potts, Greg Walsh and Paul Smith (RUA)
Griffith .............. 6.8 .. 14.12 .. 22.19 .. 27.23 (185)
Turvey Park .... 0.0 .. 3.3 .. 5.4 .. 9.8 (62)
GRIFFITH: Trent Bradley, Simon Spiers, Myles Bunn; Roger Heenan*, Adam Brander*, Matt Bunn; Ben Ford, Adrian Burns, Craig Conlan; Tim Birks*, Balraj Singh*, Tim Matheson*; Rodney Simpkin, Jeff Mickan, Michael Duncan; Michael Wilson*, Rodney Duncan, Matthew McDonald; Jason Hampel, Mathew Crack, Ashley Gardner
TURVEY PARK: John Hoey, Jeff Fletcher, Paul Donaldson; Brad Cooper, Grant Bourne, Chris Whelan; Cameron Barker, Michael Dombroski, Luke Spokes; Warren Sykes, Ben Harper, Dusty Brown; Luke Webb, Doug McLean, Nathan Flanigan; Travis Richards, Blair Campbell; Robbie Myers; Michael Ness, Andrew Regan, Michael Regan
GOALS
Griffith: M Duncan 5, A Gardner 4, M McDonald 3, B Singh 3, C Conlan 3, M Crack 3, R Duncan 2, M Wilson, T Birks,

A Burns, J Hampel
Turvey Park: J Hoey 2, D Brown 2, M Ness, R Meyers, N Flanigan, W Sykes, T Richards
BEST PLAYERS
Griffith: M McDonald, A Brander, C Conlan, C Conlan, R Simpkin, A Burns, R Heenan

Turvey Park:
SENIOR DEBUT: Tim Birks, Adam Brander, Roger Heenan, Tim Matheson, Balraj Singh
A summary of match report, with thanks
Griffith Swans stamped their authority on the Riverina Football League on Saturday night with a 123-point thrashing of Turvey Park. In what was a rematch of the 2003 grand final, the Swans were all class as they proved they will be the side to beat in 2005. Turvey Park coach Blair Campbell labelled Griffith's performance as one of the best performances he has seen in the competition as Turvey showed no improvement on last year's dismal performance. The Swans controlled the game from the first bounce, scoring nine unanswered goals before 17-year-old first-gamer Michael Ness stood tall to kick the Bulldogs' first goal 14 minutes into the second quarter.

The Swans killed their opposition all over the ground. Swans captain-coach Adrian Burns was delighted with the side's performance, declaring he could not have asked for a better start to the season. "It was a good start, I couldn't have asked for much more out there tonight," Burns said. "Our tackling improved, we were a lot more committed, and we really were a strong unit out there.

But we can't get over excited." After kicking nine goals before the Bulldogs' first, Griffith went into half-time in front by 75 points.

New recruit Balraj Singh provided a focal point up forward as Turvey Park targeted the forward early with a high shot that broke out in a small tussle as Singh took his first mark for the game. With the attention on Singh up forward, it left the door open for goal sneak Mick Duncan, five goals, and full-forward Ash Gardner, four, to take advantage.

The second half saw a slight improvement from Turvey, but the Swans kept slamming the goals on to take the match and run-away resounding winners 27.23 (185) to 9.8 (62). Turvey coach Blair Campbell was extremely disappointed with the start to the season. "That was pretty ordinary," Campbell said. "But they were a pretty slick outfit." (Matt Malone - The Area News, Monday April 4, 2005).

 

OTHER MATCHES -SAT: Mangoplah-CUE 20.17 (137) def Eastern Hawks 17.16 (118); SUN: Ganmain-GGM 10.13 (73) def by Coolamon 11.13 (79), Leeton-Whitton 17.17 (119) def Narrandera 16.7 (103)

Reserves: Griffith 30.27 (207) def Turvey Park 3.1 (19)
Goals: G Argus 11, J Bennett 4, D Graham 4, M Firebrace-Jones 2, G Foley 2, N Hetherington 2, B Hicken 2, T Wilson 2, G Dreyer
Best players: N Hetherington, G Argus, G Foley, J Bennett, G Dreyer, M Kenny
Under 18: Turvey Park 10.12 (72) d Griffith 7.10 (52)
Goals: D Crack 2, W Jaffrey 2, R Hannon, J Gastin, A Robertson
Best players: J Ward, W Jaffrey, D Crack, J Gastin, R Best, R Hannon