Australian Football

Match Report

The use of the term “upset of the season” might seem a little gratuitous after the second game of the AFL fixture, but after this year’s 207th match is played on Grand Final day, there’s a fair chance that the Giants win over Sydney at the Sydney Showground on Saturday night will still own that title. If it doesn’t, then the Giants may well be about to embark on a far more successful season that many footy pundits envisaged.

Saturday’s match proved to be one of several “firsts”. After the first quarter went according to script, with the Swans kicking 6.2 to 4.1 to take a 13-point lead, a huge thunderstorm struck the Showground, and all players abandoned the idea of the quarter-time huddle and headed straight into the rooms. With torrential rain falling and lightning striking at or near the stadium, the players were prevented from returning to the field for some time, and the first break lasted a record 23 minutes.

When the storm had passed and the complexion of the sky had changed, so too did that of the match itself. Sydney dominated the play for periods of time but were unable to convert this into meaningful scores, kicking just 1.6 for the term. In contrast, the Giants made the most of limited forward forays, booting three straight goals from just seven forward-50 entries, and went to the long break only seven points in arrears.

The Giants more than held their on in the third term, kicking 2.4 to the Swans’ 2.0 to close the gap to just three points. Despite this the expectation of most at the ground was that the Swans would flex their collective muscle in the last term and see off a brave challenge from the young upstart GWS team. That impression was underscored early in the last quarter when Sydney had five of the first six scoring shots. Alas for the Swans they were all behinds, and their lead at the half-way point of the term was just seven points.

With 17 minutes of the final quarter gone, Giant Stephen Coniglio sharked a loose ball and snapped a goal that levelled the scores. This proved to be the spark for an avalanche of GWS goals. In the last 10 minutes of the match, majors were added by Adam Kennedy, Jonathon Patton, Jeremy Cameron, Sam Frost, Patton again and Lachie Whitfield to leave the stunned Sydney Swans 32 points adrift.

The siren sounded soon after, and the Giants, who had been pipped by the Swans in the race to sign ex-Hawk Lance Franklin, could not hide their jubilation. Having won only a single game last year, the Giants have already matched their 2013 output and the way they played, combined with a wealth of young talent, suggests that they could win quite a few more before the season is over. The sleeping Giants have awoken, and another significant step towards a truly national Australian Football competition appears to have been taken.

GOALS
GWS: Cameron 4; Patton 3; Smith, Greene, Scully, Ward, Coniglio, Frost, Kennedy, Whitfield
Sydney: McGlynn 2; Reid, Franklin, Cunningham, Rohan, Bird, Jetta, Mitchell

BEST - AFL.COM.AU
GWS: Treloar, Ward, Coniglio, Mumford, Greene, Whitfield, Shaw
Sydney: Mitchell, Parker, Shaw, Kennedy, McGlynn

BEST - THE SUNDAY AGE
GWS: Ward, Davis, Cameron, Patton, Treloar, Mumford
Sydney: Parker, Kennedy, Shaw, Mitchell, Malceski, McGlynn

COACHES' COMMENTS
Leon Cameron (GWS): I think our guys started to sense it [the chance of victory] probably half way through the third quarter. We spoke about it at three-quarter-time - it was our third pre-season and we think we've made some significant ground in the area of playing four quarters of footy. We've still got a way to go but I thought it was great that our players found something, especially at about the 10-minute mark of the last quarter when it seemed to be heading in their direction.

John Longmire (Syd): We didn't take our chances when we had heaps of the ball and heaps of inside-50s in the second quarter. We kicked one goal six, while they only had seven inside-50s for the quarter but kicked three goals straight. Then they really lifted after half time and we couldn't go with them.

INJURIES
GWS: Palmer (hamstring)
Sydney: K Jack (back) replaced in selected side by O'Keefe

SUBSTITUTES
GWS: Dylan Shiel replaced Rhys Palmer in the first quarter
Sydney: Ryan O'Keefe replaced Lewis Roberts-Thomson at three-quarter time

UMPIRES: Fleer, Schmitt, Pannell

TELEVISION BROADCAST: Fox Footy

COMMENTATORS: Dwayne Russell, Jason Dunstall, Alastair Lynch, Cameron Mooney