Revelling in the Riverina: A little piece of Italy in the Riverina

REVELLING in the Riverina

 

The vintage years

 

 

 

Episode 6:                                                                    A little piece of Italy in the Riverina

 

 

 

 

Griffith, NSW (the ‘Swans’ – South West District FL/Riverina Football Netball League)

 

 

Stage 6: Hillston to Griffith

 

 

Turning the Ford, like a Warnie leg break, we leave the Lachlan and make for another ‘Swans’ town, Griffith, 110km away. As we motor along Kidman Way, the north-south country route linking Bourke with the southern Riverina, relax and listen to “the song that Griffith built” – ‘Something in the Water’. 

 

 

 

 

Many readers will associate Griffith with a flamboyant 1970s politician and a murdered anti-drugs campaigner – Al Grassby and Donald Mackay. Accompanying that, an undeserved reputation as being the ‘Mafia capital of Australia’. Let’s rejoice in a small sample of the city’s notable former sons and daughters. Griffith is the birthplace of media presenter Stan Grant, rugby league star John O’Neill and tennis legend Evonne Goolagong.

 

Arriving in Griffith’s impressively landscaped main street and spotting the town’s welcome sign, travellers can sense a hint of the Florida Everglades – as a sun-drenched, water-filled, food-growing paradise greets you. Instantly visitors can start to appreciate the importance of water to Griffith and the surrounding settlements deep in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area. Griffith is not just a food bowl but also a multicultural mix of over 70 nationalities. One of those, the Italian community, is most prominent in the cultural diversity of the city, claiming ancestry for a quarter of the population. Wine is to Griffith as liniment is to football, so we could spend the afternoon at any one of the dozen or more local cellar doors. Two must-taste wines are the local Noble One botrytis riesling and the classic Hanwood Port.

 

We have entered the territory of the Riverina Football Netball League, one of the premier footy competitions in the state. Australian Football was introduced to the Griffith district by irrigation canal workers in 1914. Since then the Australian code has shared the limelight at Griffith with Rugby League (in Group 20 and its precursors), toe-to-toe against one another for the sponsors, the supporters and the players. Prior to 1939 Griffith competed in a variety of leagues centered on the MIA. Between 1939 and 1981 Griffith was affiliated with the strong South West District League, a competition that had its origins in the early 1890s. Realignment of the three Riverina footy leagues in 1982 saw the Griffith Swans hold their place in the top tier of Riverina football, playing against most of their former opponents plus a few clubs from the old Farrer League.

 

In the past half century or so pennants have been sparse for the Swans, with 2003 and 1968 the only premiership years for the club’s senior teams. Before the 1968 triumph there was only one SWDFL premiership for Griffith, their maiden flag, back in 1952. But flags could have adorned every wall of their clubrooms had things panned out differently on a dozen grand final days between 1964 and 2023. When selecting the club’s vintage years we should recognize the 2002-2004 period as one of the best eras, for in those three seasons the Swans were minor premiers, runners-up and club champions (2002), premiers (2003) and runners-up again (2004). 

 

There is not a country football netball club anywhere with a recorded history as complete and detailed as that of the Griffith Swans. The ‘Swans on Screen’ website is a gem for anyone with an interest in the club’s history, and for Riverina footy historians, it makes a marvellous resource. Take a look for yourself:

 

https://www.swansonscreen.com/

 

Charlie O’Brien, a member of Griffith’s 1952 premiership-winning team, wrote a poem he named ‘Ghost Busting’ after the Swans lost the 2002 RFL grand final. It told of the vital importance of the 1968 flag to Griffith in keeping its place in the SWDFL and pointed the way forward for the club to exorcise the ghosts of the grand final disappointment.

 

Ghost Busting

 

I’m at the Narrandera Sportsground for this fourth Sunday in September

for a Riverina Football League grand final to remember.

My team, the Griffith Swans is featured here today

And Turvey Park, a Wagga side is also here to play.

 

 Wagga teams have won this league eleven times of late

Griffith won the South-West league way back in ‘68.

One other flag is fifty-two was crucial you could say

It foiled a move to sack the Swans as they were “too far away”!

 

The win didn’t start a new era, in fact to give you the drum

Our club continued to struggle for the next decade to come

Twas not ‘til the mid sixties that we emerged as a force

When several grand finals we made and were sixty-eight premiers of course.

 

Well, the game began, and the Swannies’ first two shots both went astray

We missed a chance to break the ice; but not worry – it’s early days

The other team were quite unreal, converting every time

A few from fifty metres, others from the boundary line.

 

The Griffith Swans stood resolute, soaking up the pressure

With thirty points the half time gap – they knew they could play better

The game is at a vital stage, the bar is lifting higher;

When we start the second half we really have to fire.

 

But Turvey got the opening goal, then kicked another pair

The mood of all the Griffith fans was verging on despair.

Yet our mighty team, though under siege was not about to yield

Digging deep, they found top gear all around the field.

 

Our shots began to split the sticks, as every boot seemed deft;

Before too long we hit the lead, thirteen up, eight minutes left.

The enemy now, are on the ropes, our supporters on their toes

But the Turvey team stayed on their feet as we sought the knock-out blows.

 

And here we started to pay a price for giving too much start

Our scintillating fight-back began to lose its spark.

The other team still had some run when time-on came around

Alas, they kicked the winning goals and we heard the siren sound.

 

It’s great when you make a grand final, losing it hurts like hell;

Did our lack of big time experience cost us today? Who can tell?

It’s said no one remembers the team that finishes second

It can’t be denied, we didn’t produce at a time when history beckoned.

 

But if our older fans dejectedly say “What’s new?”

Our younger brigade, less aware of the past, will take a more positive view.

Twice they have seen grand finals today, and are proud of all players for sure;

They will ponder our future, next year and beyond, enthused by what they just saw.

 

Not for them any negative thoughts that grand final losses engender,

the club must ignore the “ghosts of the past”, and look forward to NEXT September.

(from Swans on Screen: History in red and white) 

 

The Swans certainly did look forward to next September and weren’t about to stumble at the final hurdle again. With a thumping 73 point victory over Turvey Park the Swans claimed their first flag in 35 years. It was a big weekend for Griffith in three codes of football, with the rugby union team (the Griffith Blacks) and the Group 20 rugby league (the Yenda Blueheelers) teams also winning premierships.

 

In 2004 Griffith were opposed to Ganmain Grong Grong Matong in the grand final but their dream of back-to-back flags was over by half time. The Lions coasted home to a 48 point win over the shattered Swans, and with that, Griffith’s next tilt at the title would be a long wait. In 2023 old rivals Turvey Park stood in their way once more and spoiled the party with a comfortable 31 point win.

 

Two Griffith football identities, Sid Robins and Jack Luhrs, were recently inducted into the inaugural NSW Australian Football Hall of Fame. Robins is widely regarded as Griffith’s best ever player.  He played as a defender and enjoyed a record 317 senior team career with the Swans between 1963 and 1980.  He won the club’s best and fairest award on four consecutive occasions (1969-1972) and took out the SWDFL Gammage Medal in 1972. Robins was a member of the Swans 1968 premiership side. In 2014 he was selected at centre half-back in Griffith Swans’ ‘Team of the Century’. 

 

Jack Luhrs played 100 games for Griffith (1949-55) and was a member of the club’s 1952 premiership team. Known on the field as “ironman”, he was a larger than life character and community-minded man off the field. Luhrs served on the Swans’ committee and was once club president (1978). Jack’s role in the media as a radio match caller for 2RG and newspaper reporter between 1955 and 1990 is where he made his greatest contributions to Riverina football. For 30 years he filled the airwaves across the MIA on Sundays with his broadcasts of SWDFL games.

 

 

Griffith in 2024

 

Coolamon Rovers 13.10 (88) defeated Griffith Swans 10.14 (74)

at Griffith Ex-Serviceman’s Fields on Saturday 25th May 2024

 

 

Riverina Spotto

 

Square off and 13 to go

 

the last post	Irish pub	a slice of pizza
faithful canine	sheep and dog	the family club
22 yards	two felines	31.12.74
truckie’s stop	submarine	a shearing team
all among the wool	one pub town	Sherrin
three  bees	square	footy hub

 

Next episode: to Barellan

 

 

Previous episodes of Revelling In The Riverina, and more from Peter Clark can be read Here.

 

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