By Jonathan B Geddes

HARDWORKING Eastwood backrower Angus Griffin has revealed that, despite his lifelong association with the Woodies head coach, he still gets treated like any other player in the team.

After a lengthy career in the NRL, his dad Anthony Griffin took the reins at TG Millner Field this season as the team has proved to be a real surprise packet, knocking on the door of the finals with Angus a key figure in the journey.

A dad coaching his son at the senior level always has the potential to be a challenging dynamic.   

“I’ve enjoyed it, I’ve really enjoyed this year,” Angus told Rugby News as Eastwood prepare for what is shaping up to be their season-defining clash against Sydney University on Saturday evening.

“I’ve been around rugby league my whole life, always been around him (dad) coaching. It’s not a big change for me.

“At training it is a player-coach relationship, I look at him as a coach, not really my father.”

And Angus said he certainly doesn’t get any special treatment.

“Not at all, I get the worst end of it,” he said. “I’d probably be better off having a coach who wasn’t my dad.”

‘IT’S GOOD BEING AN UNDERDOG’

SATURDAY’S final Shute Shield round is edge-of-the-seat stuff, with sixth-placed Eastwood four points ahead of Norths, who play Souths at Forshaw Park on Saturday. Adding another layer of intrigue, while the Norths game kicks off at 3pm, Eastwood will run onto University Oval at 5.30pm.

University have hit form with victories over Warringah and Easts in the past fortnight. They will be hot favourites on Saturday – and that suits the Woodies just fine.    

Eastwood have already exceeded a lot of people’s expectations in 2026 and have also taken satisfaction in silencing the doubters.

“We’ve never really listened to that, we’ve always had a tight group and had a good pre-season with a new bunch of boys,” he said.  

“It’s always good being an underdog, no one is really expecting much.

“Obviously in the back of your mind you’d like to prove everyone wrong – which we have done a couple of times this year.

“We don’t really discuss it much throughout the year, we always knew we were a top six side and could put it to teams.”

A STUDENT DEMONSTRATION

AS one rival coach said of the current Eastwood side: “They just won’t go away.”

And they won’t die wondering on Saturday.

“We are really keen for it, we always knew that the last game against Uni was going to be a huge game and we are preparing hard for it,” Angus said.

“We’ll stick to our guns and are really working on defence this week. We’ve been letting in a few too many points in the past couple of weeks.”

When the teams met in round nine at TG Millner Field, the Woodies won 42-39.

“That’s probably the same game we want to play this week – drag them into a dogfight where they don’t want to be,” he said.

“We know we are a real fit team, so if we are any chance towards the back end of the game, we’ll put our best foot forward.”

A SPARKIE IN THE WOODS

ANGUS said the Woodies will monitor what happens in the earlier Norths versus Souths game.

“I’m sure most of the boys will know how many points we need going into the Uni game,” he said

“We really just need to win, everything else goes out the window if we win. We are just focusing on making it about ourselves.

“It’s do-or-die finals footy for us, and it has been for the past two weeks. We’ll be desperate out there and leave nothing in the sheds.”

Electrician Angus will be right in the thick of the action, looking to spark up his side. After missing all last season following a shoulder reconstruction, he has been making up for lost time this year.

“I’m building confidence each week and getting a full year in first grade Shute (Shield) and hope I can get better and better each week,” he said.