Round 8 - Saturday June 7, 2003
Riverina Football League
Venue: Mangoplah Sportsground 2.10pm
Umpires: ----
Mangoplah-CUE .... 1.2 .. 7.6 .. 9.7 .. 12.10 (82)
Griffith ................... 4.1 .. 8.2 .. 12.3 .. 12.7 (79)
MANGOPLAH-COOKARDINIA UNITED-EASTLAKES: Graham Pike, Nathan Ross, Mitch Balding; Dale Cameron, Chris Higgins, Grant Bruce; Andrew Lieschke, Brad Sanbrook, Casey Godde; Xavier Higgins, Matt Deacon, Dean Howard; Trent Balding, Scott Allen (c-c), Matt Creasy; Shane Wardrop, Jeff Millar, Brad Roberson; Neil Lawson, Garth Smith, Brad Pattison      
GRIFFITH: Simon Spiers, Jonathon O'Dwyer, Jason Malone; Matt Bunn, Jeff Mickan, Trevor Clarke; Myles Bunn, Anthony Greely, Dominic Giorgi; Rodney Simpkin, Andrew Hill, Jason Hampel; Damien Scott, Rick Frkovic, Kaine Malone; Brendan Giason, Rodney Duncan (capt), Jamie Bennett; Matthew McDonald, David Curran, Ajay Kearney
GOALS
Mangoplah-CUE: B Roberson 3, M Deacon 3, S Allen 2, T Balding 2, X Higgins, A Lieschke
Griffith: A Hill 3, R Duncan 2, J Bennett, D Scott, M McDonald, R Simpkin, A Greely, Myles Bunn, D Curran
BEST PLAYERS
Mangoplah-CUE: D Cameron, N Ross, S Wardrop, B Roberson, C Godde, M Balding
Griffith: T Clarke, R Duncan, B Giason, Matt Bunn, M McDonald, D Giorgi
A summary of match report, with thanks
It's becoming an all too familiar scene for the Griffith Swans, dominating for most of the game only to lose in the dying seconds, and history repeated itself in Saturday's game against Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes at Mangoplah Sportsground.

In a heart-breaking close match, the Swans led in every quarter of the game stretching the lead to six goals at one stage in the second quarter, before Mangoplah got on top to take the game 82-79. Swans coach Cian Ebert was obviously disappointed in his team's performance despite beginning the game well. "We started brilliantly and 10 minutes into the second quarter we were six goals up," he said.

"The we stopped being creative and working as a team." He said the game played out in a similar fashion in the second half.

"We came out in the third quarter and played how we were supposed to. We started playing for each other again," he said.  "Then there was a bit of a lapse in the last quarter, and they got on top and they're the type of team that just keeps persisting and persisting."

"They showed a great fighting spirit and full credit to them." This is the second time this season the Swans have lost the final quarter after they looked like they were going to avenge their grand final defeat against Turvey Park five weeks ago, before losing to the reigning premiers at the last moment. Ebert said he was still not sure why this continued to happen to the Swans, but there were a number of possibilities. "We're obviously not working as hard as we should be or can be," he said.

"We need to work harder and get fitter and be more committed as well." "There's a few players on the team that do the individual selfish thing which is an ongoing problem for the team." Ebert said the trip to Mangoplah was always a tough journey as well, being the longest the team has to make for the season, and this may have been a factor in the loss as well.

He said we could not blame the loss on the number of first grade players missing from the line-up through injury at the moment. "We were six goals up at one stage so that shows we can still get the job done without them," he said.

(By Grace Uhr - The Area News, Monday June 9, 2003).

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OTHER MATCHES - SAT: Coolamon 9.11 (65) def by Turvey Park 29.16 (190), Narrandera 10.7 (67) def by Leeton-Whitton 16.8 (104); SUN: East Wagga-K 15.7 (97) def by Ganmain-GGM 28.18 (186).

Reserves: Mangoplah-CUE 15.12 (102) def Griffith 10.6 (66)
Goals: A Gardner 4, B Hicken 3, Chris Conlan, S Conlan, K Duncan
Best players: Chris Conlan, S Conlan, G Dreyer, G Lamont, B Hicken
Under 18: Mangoplah-CUE 15.18 (150) def Griffith 0.1 (1)
Best players: T Condon, K Duncan, D Catanzariti, R Brill, T Matheson