Lochie’s raring to lock in the finals
Mummy keen to march on
CUT-PRICE ruckman Shane Mumford is determined to extend his second stint at the Giants beyond this year.
The Gippsland raised-star came out of retirement this season and despite a two-week internal suspension for prior drug use has enjoyed an excellent year.
The elite pressure player is No.2 in the league behind Max Gawn for hit-outs to advantage and second for tackles behind only Brodie e Grundy.
His manager, Anthony McConville, said yesterday y Mumford and another of his clients Brett Deledio were keen to play again next year.
McConville said Mumford, who turns 33 in a fortnight, had the fire in the belly to continue his career resurgence.
“He is definitely up and about and more than keen to go again. The conversation needs to be had ad with the club about what that hat would look like but the expectation would be Shane ne would go again given where re his body is at,” he said.
“As Leon [Cameron] said, d, everyone is battered and bruised so that bye has come at a good time. Shane is no different but he wants to play on.”
The club’s football boss Wayne Campbell again reiterated his confidence in securing Stephen Coniglio’s signature on Sunday despite St Kilda, Carlton and Hawthorn chasing hard.
“All I can say is we’re really confident that Stephen will be here next and long term as well,” he said.
Jon Patton is two-four weeks away from a NEAFL return after his third knee reconstruction and having dropped weight is in excellent shape as his return nears. THE magnitude of this week’s TSL clash against Clarence is not lost on the Tigers — and young gun Lochie Griggs has declared the group is ready for the challenge.
Last Saturday’s nailbiting victory over North Hobart, where the Demons had a chance to tie the scores with the last kick of the game, saw the Tigers move eight points clear of Clarence in fifth spot.
A second win for the year against the Roos at Blundstone Arena will almost lock the club into its maiden finals series and Griggs said the players aren’t shying away from what is at stake this weekend.
“We knew if we won the game it would sit us two games clear of Clarence. Now coming into this week us versus Clarence, it is probably the biggest game for us this year,” said Griggs, who was best afield in the five-point result against the Demons.
“If we can knock them off this week it probably goes a long way to us making finals. We try not to talk about it too much but obviously it is in the back of everyone’s mind, this is our sixth year now and we haven’t made finals … we have started thinking we are a chance.
“I would imagine they know this is a must-win game for them, if they win this it probably comes down to that third game we play them later in the year.”
Now in his third year at the Tigers, the 20-year-old has transitioned into a damaging wingman-half back after missing all of 2018 due to back stress fractures.
In his first year at the club he spent the majority of the season with the Mariners, and is thriving in the environment created by coach Trent Baumeler.
“Since Trent came in last year we have really worked on culture. That was one thing we wanted to work on before footy foremost. We wanted to make sure our culture was really good. We are really building something, we know we have the list to have some good success.
“We know the games we have to win now but the real key for us is trying to knock off one of the big four and that is what we will keep challenging ourselves to do.”