After 10 long years, the ANU Griffins are finally in position to take a run at the AFL Canberra Women’s Second Grade grand final.
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Their success in 2018 is the result of a number of factors which have combined at the right time.
This year marks the first time that AFL Canberra had introduced a second grade, which has balanced out the level of competition more evenly.
Similarly, Griffins president and full forward Caitlin Roy said that the team had been strengthened by a large squad and good player retention this year.
“We’ve had a huge turnaround this year, which you can attribute to a number of things,” Roy said.
“We’ve got a fabulous coach, we’ve got the Women’s Leadership Scholarship which has attracted a lot of talent.
“We’ve been able to retain a lot of our players – we’ve got a list of 50 girls and only 24 spots each week, but they all keep coming back.”
The Griffins will take on the Riverina Lions in Saturday morning’s clash, and it is impossible to pick a favourite as they are 1-1 in their meetings so far this year.
“We have never beaten Riverina until this year,” Roy said.
“We know that it’s gonna be super hard-fought, they won their preliminary final [against the Queanbeyan Tigers] pretty convincingly [6.5.41 to 0.0.0].
“They’re really hard around the contest, they’ve got some really skilled players.”
Roy added that most of the Griffins players were “hungry” to taste the ultimate success this weekend, and said that their deeply ingrained structures of play were the best way to dissipate any Grand Final jitters.
“Throughout the year, there is a lot of nervousness, no doubt about that,” Roy said.
“We have really tried to focus on our structures and play our game … so that no matter what team we’re playing, we’re thinking about our game and not the opposition’s game.
“That’s what we’ll be doing going into the Grand Final, focusing on our game and the fact that it’s one apiece, we know we can do it. We just have to be switched on.”
The Women’s Second Grade Grand Final between ANU and Riverina will take place on Saturday from 9.30am at Football Park.
