AFLW
Turbo’s extra motivation to win

Fremantle have welcomed another former player onto their AFLW coaching panel with Jon Griffin joining the coaching group as a ruck coach.

Griffin played 56 games for Fremantle between 2011 and 2017 during his 11-year AFL career that also saw him play 41 games for Adelaide.

He joins former teammate Garrick Ibbotson as well as former AFLW players Amy Lavell and Lisa Webb on the coaching panel that also includes senior coach Trent Cooper and senior assistant Craig Thomas.

After his final season at Fremantle in 2017, Griffin played three seasons for East Fremantle in the WAFL where he enjoyed passing his knowledge down to his younger teammates.

“I see this as an exciting opportunity for me. Just over the last couple of years of my playing career, I found a real fascination and drive to do a bit more coaching,” Griffin said.

“Spending a bit of time with the young guys at East Freo, I found a real passion for it. It’s exciting to obviously get an opportunity to come back to Fremantle and to work with the women’s side.”

Griffin said he was looking forward to working closely with talented ruck Mim Strom, who is just one year into her AFLW career.

“The AFLW has progressed really quickly and to see the young girls coming through, it’s really exciting,” Griffin said.

“To have the opportunity to work with a genuine tall like Mim is something that I’m really looking forward to and I’m hoping to impart some of the knowledge that I’ve learnt over the years. It’s definitely a relationship that I’m looking forward to building.”

In his early years as a player, Griffin said he would never have considered a coaching career.

“I used to think that coaching was one of the hardest jobs in the world,” Griffin said.

“Over the past couple of years of my playing career, I’ve found a real passion for it and it’s something that I’m really excited about.

“I find it really rewarding and to work with the girls, I’m really honoured and really lucky and hopefully, I can impart some of my knowledge that I have gained over my 13 years of AFL and three years of WAFL.”