Round 14 - Sunday July 20, 2008
Riverina Football League
Venue: Griffith Exies Oval 2.10pm
Umpires: Duncan Potts and Ryan Dedini (RUA) 
Griffith ........................ 2.1 .. 2.4 .. 3.5 .. 4.7 (31) 
Mangoplah-CUE ...... 7.2 .. 9.5 .. 12.6 .. 15.7 (97)
GRIFFITH: Michael Tyndall, Simon Spiers, Sam Gilbert*; Jason Bertacco, Matthew Kenny, Jonathon Gastin; Luke Piccolo, Michael Johns, James Smith; Ben Ford, Glen Snaidero, Brett Davis; Andrew Cappello, Craig Conlan, Jack Geddes; Shaun Curran, Michael Duncan, Brett Owen; Kris Duncan, David Pasin, Craig Lugton
MANGOPLAH-COOKARDINIA UNITED-EASTLAKES: Brett Howard, Jai Warden, Trent Cohalan; Jake Phillips, Stace Creasy, Chris Higgins, Jeff Millar, Brad Roberson, Brad Turner; Dean Howard, Jordan Foster, Geoff Spriggs; Graeme Reid, Dylan de Britt, Curtis Richens; Matt Molkentin, Jarrod Kahlefeldt, Brad Pattison; Sam Balding, Jack Killalea, Shaun Bennett 
GOALS
Griffith: G Snaidero 2, B Davis, D Pasin 
Mangoplah-CUE: G Reid 4, D de Britt 3, J Foster 3, D Howard 2, S Creasy, G Spriggs, C Higgins 
BEST PLAYERS
Griffith: S Curran, S Spiers, B Owen, C Conlan, J Smith 
Mangoplah-CUE: B Turner, B Pattison, G Spriggs, G Reid, C Higgins 
SENIOR DEBUT: Sam Gilbert

A summary of match report, with thanks
Griffith Swans' coach Gerard Toscan said the side's 64-point loss against Mangopah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes at Exies Oval was their worst game of the year. The Swans were playing catch up football for most of the game, and simply couldn't create enough scoring chances to peg back the massive first quarter deficit. Griffith lost the services of several players during the week due to injury, and also in-form onballer Mick Duncan, who left the field in the first 10 minutes of the game.

  Duncan injured his ribs during a State League basketball game earlier in this year, and after he received a hit to the same area yesterday, the home side lost one of its biggest strike weapons.  However, Duncan's fitness for the Australian Country Championships this week in Shepparton also comes under the spotlight, with the former best and fairest winner in a race against time to be declared fit.

Toscan said it would be very disappointing if Duncan wasn't able to take his place in the rep team, bur reiterated that players absent from the field didn't excuse Griffith's performance.

They (MCUE) handled the ball a lot better than us, and we always seemed to be second to the footy in that first quarter," Toscan said.

However, the Swans leader was able to find some positives out of the game, saying the new centre half-forward Glen Snaidero performed exceptionally well given the circumstances. "I think he had a really good first quarter and one of the other highlight I thought was Shaun Curran, he dominated the ruck all day," Toscan said. "But we can't make any excuses about not having guys, yes we have a few blokes out, but we had 18 players on the field just the same as they did."

The real killer for Griffith was an opening seven goal term by MCUE, which effectively took the game away from the Swans before they had a chance to get into it. From there playing catch-up football in the slippery conditions was always going to be tough ask, with some of the defensive errors from earlier in the season coming back, only to compound the problem.

While for MCUE, Dean Howard was strong in the air in the first half which allowed the Goannas to open up a 45-point lead at the long break. Chris Higgins goaled early in the third to stretch the lead for MCUE, but Brett Davis managed to peg one back, after some good lead up work from Kris Duncan and Jason Bertacco. But it was never going to be enough after the first quarter whitewash.

 (By Scott Hazlewood - The Area News, Monday July 21, 2008). 

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OTHER MATCHES - SAT: Eastern Hawks 20.14 (134) def North Wagga 11.6 (72), Ganmain-GGM 13.11 (89) def Wagga 9.2 (56); SUN: Leeton-Whitton 7.9 (51) def by Turvey Park 14.7 (91), Narrandera 8.4 (52) drew Coolamon 7.10 (52).

Reserves: Mangoplah-CUE 14.13 (97) def Griffith 4.3 (27) 
Goals: R Bridgen, N Campbell, D McGreal, M Butcher
Best players: G Foley, B Woolner, R Johns, R Best 
Under 18: Mangoplah-CUE 10.7 (67) d Griffith 6.11 (47)
Goals: n/a
Best players: T Bottcher, B Snaidero, B Jaffrey, S Wood