"There's no doubt if you asked Ryan, he would love to be in better form," Cameron said, as a guest on Fox Footy's On the Couch. It is self evident that only Griffen knows exactly what thoughts run through his head. But that won't stop others who are paid to give an opinion from presenting theories. One who is better placed than most to do so is his former Bulldogs teammate Luke Darcy, the high-profile media figure with close links to his former club. "The whole move and the decision to do it, I think it's weighed heavily on him," Darcy said of Griffen's current mindset, some eight months after he made the tumultuous decision to leave the club at which he was captain and head north. "I think he thought what he was leaving behind was a car crash," he said on Channel Seven's Talking Footy. "But what's happened is that the club has been able to sort things out really well."

Indeed, the club Griffen played against on Saturday is not the one he left. At the time of his departure, the Dogs were set to lose their best player and captain (Griffen), their coach, with whom Griffen had issues (Brendan McCartney) and their chief executive (Simon Garlick). By the time reigning best and fairest Tom Liberatore went down with a season-ending knee injury, any hope Luke Beveridge had of a honeymoon first season looked dashed. But the Dogs have defied the odds to stage a dramatic transformation, the magnitude of which was plainly obvious for everyone, including Griffen, to see as they ran over GWS with a team filled with young talent comparable to that of the rising Giants. Instead of some of Griffen's fellow former veteran teammates like Matthew Boyd and new captain Robert Murphy calling it quits, they have been re-invigorated. That could be another factor playing on Griffen, creating "what if" thoughts.

"So I think he's looking back and thinking, 'I love that place, I love those players'," Darcy pondered, putting himself in Griffen's shoes. "They [the Dogs players] really rate him still, and I think it's taking him a bit of time to adjust to life in Sydney." In a football sense, it is undeniable that Griffen is yet to find his feet in the new system. His numbers have dropped significantly in key areas on his output at the Bulldogs – such as average disposals, down to 18.9 this year from 24.7 across his last five years at the Dogs, and also average inside 50s, down to 3.4 from 5.1. "He's sort of been on for one, off for one, and I think that's that connection with Shane Mumford," Cameron said of Griffen's inconsistency, highlighting the importance of building chemistry with a ruckman when you are an inside midfielder being heavily tagged.

"I feel that connection is coming," he said. "Dylan Shiel, Adam Treloar and Stephen Coniglio are really benefited from Ryan Griffen being there. Whether Griff is taking that hard tag from the opposition a lot more than those kids, I think they love having him around." Certainly being the No.1 target of the opposition in a young team is a contributing factor, but then again, the Dogs weren't the finals contenders they are now back in 2013 when Griffen punched out an All-Australian season as the club's main man. Cameron, a good friend of Griffen's and a former assistant coach at the Dogs, said he felt the 28-year-old had been building into his season with solid performances in the past three weeks, but admitted: "There's no doubt that coming up against his old side at the weekend probably had some sort of effect", in reference to his quiet, 10-disposal, one-goal outing against the Dogs. That is on the field. Off it, Cameron says Griffen is well settled.