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Tom is turning from sullied star to a star Scully at GWS

19th April, 2015
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19th April, 2015
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I have to admit it, I too was one them. Back during those early days of the Greater Western Sydney Giants I was one who wondered why the powers that be had spent so much of the AFL’s dowry on Tom Scully.

Somehow it didn’t seem fair and I know many GWS fans felt a little the same. The Gold Coast Suns got Gary Ablett Jr and the Giants got Scully. Well, I guess they did get Scully senior too as they signed his dad Phil to a recruitment job.

Just a couple of good performances were sprinkled among some mediocre efforts in that inaugural season with the Giants, leading to all the questions about whether GWS had gone the right way with their recruitment. Surely there were better options and candidates out there for the $6 million they paid for Scully’s six-year contract?

He was an easy target for the media, and fans of both the Giants and other clubs, particularly those disgruntled ones from Melbourne. He was after all the one getting paid megabucks. The others were either kids kicking off their careers and with so much to learn, or an ex-NRL player who was also kicking off his now brief career and who had even more to learn.

Scully could actually thank Israel Folau, as he would have been even more in the firing squad’s sights had Izzy not been a Giant.

But slowly Scully has improved, and his game on Saturday against the Swans was another good one, with several signs that finally – halfway through his long contract – the Giants are about to reap some rewards.

Rarely has Scully caused the statistic takers to run out of ink. He spent most of 2014 in a run-with role after all. He probably never will have one of those statistically mind-blowing games, and he certainly won’t consistently produce the sort of numbers the Gold Coast have got from their big recruit.

But Scully has continued to put in, especially defensively in an often badly beaten team, but now, as his young teammates develop – plus the very key signing of Ryan Griffen – I expect we’re about to see the best of Tom Scully.

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And so does Giants’ coach Leon Cameron.

“We need to make sure we use Tom a little bit more,” Cameron said after the Giants’ first loss of 2015 to Sydney on Saturday.

“His back half was just power running and he got better and better as the game went on, but even in the first half he made some really good decisions.

“In the first few years I’ve been here, looking at behind the goals’ vision of every time we’ve played, there was always a Tom Scully run into space for the third or fourth possession. There is no doubt we have made some serious ground on our ball use to get it to Tom when he does break hard, because he’s got an enormous engine.

“It’s a great advantage to have that sort of player on your side who can play 90-95 per cent of game time and still run at that level, and I thought it was a really good solid game from him.”

If you do prefer to simply look at stats, they read for Scully on Saturday: 27 disposals, 12 marks, a goal, six inside 50m, and almost 93 per cent effective disposal.

But as Cameron says, there is so much more to his game that just pure statistics, and you get the feeling that the Giants believe their recruitment decision is on the verge of being well and truly vindicated.

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And we have to remember, too, that Scully is young. He’s still only 23 and has played only 89 senior games.

As Cameron – who has described Scully as the “best by a country mile at two-way running” – said recently, it’s a credit to Scully that despite all the stones being thrown at him, he’s never complained and never given up.

“I think his best footy is around the corner as we start to grow.”

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