Griffen retired

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Testekill said:
If he'd just taken a stand and then requested a trade it'd be one thing and I'd be welcoming him back; he walked out of the club and was uncontactable so we couldn't even field offers from other clubs because we could get in touch with him.

So yeah, **** Griffen
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He did request a trade!!

To GWS !!
 
DogsAreBarking said:
Forcing others to find solutions is not equal to claiming part of the credit for the solutions.
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Look I am not sticking up for Griff.

I am just saying it was a sliding doors moment which the club took advantage of.


If he hadn’t chosen to walk things could have been vey different.
 

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Draft Pick said:
Look I am not sticking up for Griff.

I am just saying it was a sliding doors moment which the club took advantage of.


If he hadn’t chosen to walk things could have been vey different.
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I won't argue with you on that at all, definitely agree.
He didn't want to be there, he asked to go to GWS and that's fine. But I believe all credit for what came next lies with the people who stepped up instead of stepping away.
 
DogsAreBarking said:
I won't argue with you on that at all, definitely agree.
He didn't want to be there, he asked to go to GWS and that's fine. But I believe all credit for what came next lies with the people who stepped up instead of stepping away.
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Sure, wasn’t giving the guy any credit for leaving.
 
I still like him tbh.

During our prelim years he always signed on without hestitation and was our best finals performer by some distance.

Leaving the club was bad but i have no doubt there was many contributing factors.

Feel bad for him.
 
Mantis Toboggan said:
I came to Australia in 2014. Started following the Dogs at the start of the 2015 season. Might as well thank me for the flag as well.
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Were you responsible for a trade that meant that we got the most influential player in the 2016 GF, or made a decision that meant a much hated coach was sacked ?
 

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Was far and away my favourite player. Broke my heart. Snuck out the back door at the club's darkest hour and for that I will never forget or forgive.

At his best he was an absolute jet. That sidestep was next level. He and Cooney in full flight were beautiful to watch.
 
My favourite griffen moment was with 32 seconds left on the clock in the 3rd quarter of the 2016 preliminary final. Clay Smith out-hungered him for the footy and Caleb kicks a goal that proved pivotal to the season's proceedings.

Thanks Griff for your second soft display that landed us a flag.
 
WATCHDOG said:
My favourite griffen moment was with 32 seconds left on the clock in the 3rd quarter of the 2016 preliminary final. Clay Smith out-hungered him for the footy and Caleb kicks a goal that proved pivotal to the season's proceedings.

Thanks Griff for your second soft display that landed us a flag.
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To be fair to Griffen, a Mack truck would have come off second best from that hit from Clay Smith.

Man I'm going to miss Clay Smith.
 
WATCHDOG said:
My favourite griffen moment was with 32 seconds left on the clock in the 3rd quarter of the 2016 preliminary final. Clay Smith out-hungered him for the footy and Caleb kicks a goal that proved pivotal to the season's proceedings.

Thanks Griff for your second soft display that landed us a flag.
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That happened right in front of my seat. Amazing stuff.
 
2016 completely changed my perspective on Griff. I loved the bloke for many years and thought him and the others leaving in 2014 would send us even further towards oblivion. When that was proven not to have happened, I forgot about him, but now hold absolutely no ill will towards the him.

Thankful for what he did in the late 2000s, was a star.
 
What done is done. The ending overshadowed the great player he was for us for many years.
Hope he enjoys his retirement. Thanks for the memories Griff- I could never hate on you properly anyway.
 
I have mixed emotions. Once he'd left - and worse still, joined the Giants - I wished him only failure. Now that he has retired without getting to a GF and with no further career achievements at GWS I can afford to look at it a little differently.

I may be joining a few dots but here's how I see it.

To me he was a bit of a Shakespearean tragic figure. A victim of complex circumstance who was not equipped to deal with those twists of ill fortune.

He was made captain against his wishes. He was not a natural leader. In fact he was the exact opposite of the articulate, urbane and empathetic Bob Murphy who succeeded him.

Once he had been painted into a corner under a coach he couldn't stand, his love of footy vanished. He didn't have the skills to think through or negotiate a way out of the situation, either for his own benefit or for the players under him who he could see were also suffering. If his representations to Gordon were rebuffed he would have seen no way out. That's a recipe for extreme mental stress - full responsibility but no capability to deal with it. He just wanted to get back to enjoying his footy and his life but all the fun had disappeared.

What followed was a very public and sensational falling out. Leon Cameron had kept in touch with him and would have known he was miserable so it wouldn't have been hard to lure him north. Griffen knew himself well enough. He would be unable to deal with interviews and the paparazzi chasing him so he went AWOL until the trade had been arranged and the media had moved onto the their next feeding frenzy (which ironically happened to be the bloke he was traded for, Tom Boyd).

From our perspective it was a shameful act from a club captain, almost unprecedented in footy. It was a crushing blow to a club that had been badly battered over the previous 25 years and was again on its knees, having fallen away after making three prelim finals under Eade. I don't know how much Griffen would have thought about that side of it. For him it was just a desperate personal escape from a dire situation.

It certainly seemed like a callous, treacherous act but to my mind Griffen was a victim of circumstances as much as the culprit. The real villains were Brendan McCartney and the club leaders who appointed him and supported him despite the mounting evidence within the club that his was a toxic regime.

History now tells us those club leaders got a second chance to get it right and pulled off an unbelievable flag within 24 months.

For them there was a very happy public redemption and they will sleep easily. For Griffen there is not such a happy ending. Despite his excellent 200+ games for the Dogs, the events of October 2014 defined his career and may haunt him for the rest of his life.

For his sake I hope he surrounds himself with good people who will help ensure he has plenty to live for in his footy retirement.

One day I hope the story will be re-told from his perspective - perhaps by a perceptive writer like Martin Flanagan, or even Bob Murphy - and that could lead to an opportunity for rapprochement with the club. That would be a good thing. It might help us all move on.
 
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Given he was, from all reports, such a reluctant captain, its still begs the question - what the * were the club (I assume Macca, but others must have had a say also) thinking to force him into the position?

Surely a professional AFL club would have enough resources to identify who was leadership material and who was not.

Similar to the Trengove and Grimes appointment at the Demons, that decision cost a number of careers.
 
Similar to Steve Smith, a brilliant individual player who never should have been made captain. A quiet country kid from Goolwa who always backed himself in. I think its possible to say that I am thankful for getting to see him in the RW&B for over 200 games and still harbour some anger at him over the nature of his betrayal.

For me personally although I have felt the anger decrease in temperature in the past few years I suspect it will still linger for awhile yet. If I had to say why it stung so acutely and still slightly stings, I always felt almost from his debut with his fearless and bold style he would be the sort of player that would one day be a crucial part of our triumph.

As many others have said he did indeed end up being the catalyst for our premiership but not in the manner you would hope for anyone.

I hope as a supporter base and individual we can come to some sort of reconciliation or terms of peace over time - but I don't know how likely that is in reality.
 
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