Star GWS recruit Ryan Griffen has admitted he was on the verge of quitting the AFL after the weight of captaining the Western Bulldogs destroyed his enjoyment of the game.
In an emotional press conference at Giants headquarters on Thursday, Griffen choked on his words as he opened up on the disillusionment he felt at the Bulldogs before announcing he was quitting the club last week.
After being traded to the Giants on Wednesday on a four-year deal, 202-game star Griffen is confident that at 28-years-of-age, he can rediscover his passion for the game in the relative anonymity of western Sydney.
Speaking for the first time since dropping the bombshell on the Bulldogs which resulted in coach Brendan McCartney falling on his sword, Griffen pleaded for understanding from the Footscray faithful for his reasons why their skipper would choose to walk out on the embattled club.
“There was a range of things. The captaincy weighed me down a fair bit, I felt like I didn’t really fit the role,” said Griffen.
“I found myself in a hole. If I’d stayed at the Bulldogs for another 12 months I would have ended up leaving the game … I’m getting a bit emotional about it but I needed a change.
“You don’t want it to come to this but life’s too short to be unhappy and feeling not great about yourself. Family and my girlfriend come first and that’s why I made the decision.
“You get into a routine at a footy club and you get complacent and the motivation stops. That’s where I was at.
“The motivation had completely gone.
“I was dead honest I was going to give the game away.”
Griffen’s move to GWS has caused a stir in the AFL, with the midfield star traded along with the Bulldogs’ sixth draft pick in exchange for the Giants’ No.1 draft pick from last year – young gun Tom Boyd.
In addition, the cash-strapped Bulldogs have agreed to pay a portion of Griffen’s salary.
Following the departure of maligned coach McCartney, Griffen could have backflipped and stayed at the Bulldogs – but the All-Australian reiterated that his reasons for wanting out ran deeper and he has wiped his hands of McCartney’s demise.
“I don’t take responsibility for that happening,” Griffen said.
“Macca has done so much for me over the three years.
“I’m not going to lie, there were things that were frustrating about the way he coached, but there was also another side where I had total respect for him.
“My decision wasn’t purely based on whether Macca was going to be there or not because if that was the case I would still be at the Bulldogs.”
Giants coach Leon Cameron and captain Callan Ward are both ex-Bulldogs themselves, and Griffen believes he’s set for a seamless transition from the western suburbs of Melbourne to Greater Western Sydney.
The shy country boy never took to the pressure of being an AFL captain in football-mad Victoria, and is confident escaping the Melbourne bubble will be just the tonic he’s looking for.
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It could be a weekend for contenders to emerge, teams to hopefully break droughts, o and overall footy to have a party.
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