Australian Football

Match Report

GWS has come from behind to defeat Hawthorn for the first time in its short history at the Sydney Showground on Sunday. The Hawks led for much of the match and at one stage in the second quarter were 27 points ahead. Bu the Giants kept chipping away to gain and lose the lead a couple of times after that before getting a run-on in the last term to record a ground-breaking 10-point win. 

Hawthorn doiminated proceedings when the game began, the scores going all the Hawks way for the first 18 minutes. By the time the first quarter entered time on, Hawthorn led 2.4 to just two behinds, Isaac Smith having scored both of the Hawks' majors. Devon Smith sparked the Giants into action with goals at the 21 and 23-minute marks but goals to Jarryd Roughead and Billy Hartung to close out the term gave Hawthorn a 15-point lead at quarter time.

The Hawks opened the second quarter as they had closed the first, with two goals - to Sam Mitchell and Jack Gunston - to move to a 27-point lead and seemingly have a comfortable hold on the match. But GWS turned the match on its head from that point until half time. Led by Jeremy Cameron, the Giants kicked the next five goals (two of those to Cameron, the others to Toby Greene, Cam McCarthy and Adam Treloar) while restricting Hawthorn to just one behind, and at the long break GWS led by four points.

Fortunes fluctuated in the third term as Hawthorn and GWS took turns in controlling the play. The Hawks jumped out of the blocks after half time with goals to Paul Puopolo, Gunston and Luke Breust giving them a 15-point buffer. GWS then took its turn to score the next three majors, two to Cameron and one to Tom Scully to wrest back a two-point advantage. Hawthorn then regained the ascendency, finishing the third quarter off with three of the last four goals to take a 10-point lead into the final change.

When Billy Hartung kicked the first goal of the last quarter at the five-minute mark, the Hawks led by 17 points and looked to have finally broken the Giants' resistance. But that was far from the case. James Stewart goaled fir GWS at the seven-minute mark before Cameron booted his sixth four minutes later. At the 14-minute mark, former Bulldog captain Ryan Griffen kicked a beautiful long goal from the boundary line and scores were suddenly level. The Giants did not stop there. They had all the momentum and bombarded the goals but could muster only five behinds. Finally, as the term entered time on Cameron kicked his seventh to take the margin to 11 points and Devon Smith made sure of the result with a major two minutes later. Taylor Duryea scored a late one for the Hawks but GWS held on for a memorable 10-point victory.

Callan Ward (31 disposals, seven tackles) was magnificent for the Giants, as were Tom Scully (21 possessions, six tackles) and Jeremy Cameron (seven goals, eight marks), while Hawthorn's best included Smith (29 possessions, two goals), Peter Burgoyne (31 disposals and a goal) and Sam Mitchell (34 touches and four tackles). 

The win lifts GWS back to sixth on the ladder, with the Giants likely to be very confident of a fifth win for 2015 when they take on Carlton at Docklands next Saturday night. Hawthorn, in eighth place with three wins, will meet Melbourne at the MCG earlier that day.

GOALS
GWS: Cameron 7; D. Smith 3; McCarthy, Scully, Greene, Treloar, Stewart, Griffen
Hawthorn: Roughead, I. Smith, Gunston, Hartung 3; Shiels, Puopolo, Mitchell, Burgoyne, Breust, Duryea

BEST - SMH.COM.AU 
GWS: Scully, Cameron, Mumford, Griffen, Patfull
Hawthorn: Smith, Mitchell, Burgoyne, Hill, Gibson.

BEST - AFL.COM.AU
GWS: Ward, Cameron, Shaw, Scully, Treloar, Shiel
Hawthorn: Burgoyne, Mitchell, Birchall, I. Smith, Suckling, Hill

INJURIES
GWS: Nil
Hawthorn: Nil

SUBSTITUTES
GWS: Zac Williams replaced Will Hoskin-Elliott at three-quarter time
Hawthorn: Brendan Whitecross replaced in Ben McEvoy in the third quarter

UMPIRES: Nicholls, Hay, Jeffery

TELEVISION BROADCAST: Fox Footy

COMMENTATORS: Matthew Campbell, Brad Johnson, Tony Shaw, Ben Dixon