Round 1 - Saturday April 10, 2004
Riverina Football League
Venue: Griffith Exies Oval 5.00pm
Umpires: Rob Wilson and Greg Walsh (RUA)
Griffith ....................... 6.5 .. 14.9 .. 23.15 .. 27.18 (180)
Mangoplah-CUE ..... 1.3 .. 6.8 .. 6.10 .. 9.17 (71)
GRIFFITH: Myles Bunn, Damien Scott, Daniel Best; Matt Bunn, Ben Wade, Rodney Duncan; Simon McClure, Adrian Burns (c-c) *, Ben Ford; Jamie Bennett, Andrew Hill, Michael Duncan; Reece Hill*, David Curran, Nick Broad*; Rick Frkovic*, Matthew McDonald, Shane Pound*; Brett Owen, Brett Lanyon*, Jason Hampel
MANGOPLAH-COOKARDINIA UNITED-EASTLAKES: Brad Pattison, David Pike, Trent Balding; Chris Higgins, Dale Cameron, Luke Kendall; Craig Websdale, Jeff Millar, Mitch Reberger; Casey Godde, Rodney Simms (c-c), Jai Warden; Brad Roberson, Dean Howard, Andrew Mahoney; Travis Richards, Xavier Higgins, Neil Lawson; Stacey Creasy, Daniel Roberts, Josh Hanlon
GOALS
Griffith: A Hill 6, M Duncan 5, M McDonald 3, S Pound 3, D Curran 3, J Bennett 2, B Ford, B Owen, R Duncan,

J Hampel, S McClure
Mangoplah-CUE: D Howard 2, C Websdale 2, A Mahoney 2, T Richards 2, M Reberger
BEST PLAYERS
Griffith: M Duncan, M McDonald, S Pound, A Hill, Myles Bunn, R Frkovic
Mangoplah-CUE: T Richards, L Kendall, J Warden, X Higgins, M Reberger 
SENIOR DEBUT: Nick Broad, Adrian Burns, Rick Frkovic, Reece Hill, Brett Lanyon, Shane Pound

A summary of match report, with thanks
RFL premiers Griffith Swans kicked off their title defence in the best possible way with a 109-point walloping of Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes at Exies Oval on Saturday night. The Swans went into Saturday's game as an unknown quantity, losing 10 players from last year's winning side and under the guidance of new coach Adrian Burns, but they quickly showed their quality with a well-rounded win.

They showed speed in the midfield, were authoritative under the high ball in both attack and defence and move the ball with fluency and accuracy. Burns, a former Essendon and St Kilda player, slotted into the team in the centre of the field and stood his ground well in his first taste of RFL. "The speed was a lot quicker than what I thought it would be," Burns said.

"We've got a lot of quick players and they moved it very fast through the midfield." It was Burns' first game with the side for the season after watching the Charity Shield game against Colingullie from the sideline two weeks ago to better judge the capabilities of his new team.

He said he enjoyed his first hit-out and accredited the win to a good overall performance. He named Andrew Hill, Matt McDonald, Mick Duncan, Rick Frkovic and new recruit Shane Pound among the Swans best, with Hill booting six goals.

Goals were hard to come by in the early stages until a Matt McDonald bomb from just inside the 50 metres in the ninth minute resulted in the first major for the Swans. Despite the slow start, the Swans booted a deluge of goals in the middle two quarters.

They restricted Mangoplah to just one goal in the opening term and this did not happen until the final minute of the quarter, The third quarter was the Swans' best, keeping Mangoplah restricted to just two behinds and hammering home nine majors.

To their credit, Mangoplah were able to keep pace in the final quarter, but the damage had already been done and the Swans sailed home for a comprehensive win. (By Grace Uhr - The Area News, Monday April 5, 2004).

     

OTHER MATCHES - SAT: Narrandera 33.27 (225) def Eastern Hawks 5.2 (32); SUN: Ganmain-GGM 12.11 (83) def by Coolamon 15.14 (104), Leeton-Whitton 22.25 (157) def Turvey Park 14.5 (89)

Reserves: Griffith 25.20 (170) def Mangoplah-CUE 6.4 (40)
Goals: B Hicken 7, T Wilson 5, W Armstrong 4, A Gardner 4, A Romagnolo 3, T Bradley, M Smith
Best players: T Bradley, T Wilson, B Hicken, R Simpkin, S Spiers, A Trotter
Under 18: Mangoplah-CUE 24.7 (153) def Griffith 4.3 (27)

Goals: Dion Minato 3, S Stubbs
Best players: K Duncan, R Newman, A Cappello, C Munro, T Matheson