As the GWS Giants this year have played their best season to date, pushing for a potential top four spot and an unlikely shot at the premiership, I’ve seen a lot of opinions put forward in disgust that a GWS flag would be a ‘gift’ from the AFL, undeserved and unearned.
Nothing, in my opinion, could be further from the truth. There’s no such thing as a gifted premiership, no such thing as a flag undeserved and unearned. GWS, were they to win it all this year, or in a future year still to come, would be as deserving as any in my book for the hard work they have put in to build their club and make the most of what they’ve been given.
No player illustrates this better than Toby Greene, who after a rollercoaster start to his career has become one of the AFL’s elite and, you might even argue, the best medium forward in the game.
After being taken by GWS at pick No.11 in the 2011 draft, Greene burst onto the scene in his first season as the standout player of the Giants’ newly-drafted talent. He played 19 matches and averaged 28 disposals in his debut season, including nine games of 30+ disposals – simply astounding numbers.
Greene was simply the most ready-made of a strong crop of rookie midfielders, the most ready and capable of stepping into senior footy, and it really showed. He should have been a lock for the Rising Star Award – unfortunately, he copped a suspension during the year and was ineligible. A very deserving Daniel Talia won it instead.
However, coming into his second year, like so many before him, Greene struggled a bit. While he again played 19 games, he dropped down to an average of just 22 disposals per game – impressive for a second year midfielder, but not compared to the numbers of his first season.
While he had filled the vacuum that his fellow young Giants simply were not ready to in that first season, their increased maturity in that year of 2013 saw them take away a few possessions here and there, and while Greene was seen as a bit vanilla, they had points of difference that saw them prioritised for midfield minutes.
Greene, struggling in the defensive areas of his game, was actually moved to a role in the backline at times during the season. It wasn’t great for his form, though no doubt the learning was valuable.
He was in a funk, and this had a hangover into 2014, his third year in the system. While his numbers were decent in this time, he was mostly playing a tagging role, and doing it fairly well – but it was a fair drop for the competition’s most promising youngster of two years ago to have become a stopper.
The lowest of the low came after Round 8 of 2014 when news broke that he was being charged with a slew of offences committed at a Melbourne night club – intentionally causing serious injury, recklessly causing injury, affray, assault in company, assault by kicking, assault with a weapon, unlawful assault, making threats to inflict serious injury, being drunk in a public place, and criminal damage.
Greene was give a five-match club-imposed ban by the Giants for his actions. Then in a huge twist of events, something we never normally see and with good reason, the news broke that with the backing of the AFL Players Association, he was going to fight the ban handed down by the club.
This was a crisis point in the story of Toby Greene’s career. Not only was his professionalism under serious question, but by refusing to accept a club-imposed suspension, he was all but signing his marching orders from the club. A real sliding doors moment – had this gone down any differently, it could have been the end of his career, or the beginning of the end, at the very least.
Who knows what magic the Giants worked inside four walls on this one. But within a few days Greene changed tack and accepted his ban. At the end of the year, he signed a three-year contract extension through till the end of the 2018 season.
When Greene returned from his suspension much of the Giants’ midfield was in the injury room and he absolutely dominated the remainder of the season, averaging a ridiculous 33 disposals per game across the last seven matches of the season (and captaining my opponent’s team to a fantasy premiership on fantasy grand final weekend in Round 23 – thanks, Toby).
2015 then saw another season much like 2012 – with much of the Giants’ midfield fit, he didn’t have that same license to hunt the ball, and was instead asked to play a role. He spent a bit of time up forward, didn’t hit up the goals much, and while he played all 22 games for the first time in his career, there were reasonable doubts about his ability to maintain a best 22 spot as the young talent at the Giants continued to emerge.
This 2016 season however has seen those questions fall away as Greene has blossomed into a player that to be honest none of us really saw him becoming, a unique medium-sized half forward with excellent ball-winning skills but more importantly the ability to light up the scoreboard.
He kicked just two goals in the opening four rounds this season, but from Round 5 onwards he has been in peak form, kicking 25 goal in this time. He hasn’t kicked less than three goals in a match since Round 7.
It’s hard to compare him to another player in the league – he’s not the classy, outside-the-contest smooth-mover type that most half-forwards are. Instead he’s a bloke who has got a lot of grunt but also excellent goal sense. There’s some similarities to Leigh Matthews.
Honestly, he has become one of my favourite players, not just for what he does on field but how he does it. He’s good, and he knows it – he’s got a bit of arrogance, a bit of swagger, and I won’t lie, seeing him tell Brendon Goddard a few things in last week’s win over Essendon made me giggle.
The Giants deserve an enormous amount of credit for the player that Toby Greene has become. We’ve often seen players at the kind of crossroads that he was at in 2014 travel down the wrong path and ultimately wind up wasting their talent. The Giants have helped Greene fully realise his talent – he’s become a better player than many of us thought possible.
Compare this to the case of Harley Bennell at the Gold Coast Suns and you will see why I say a GWS premiership, should it come to pass, could never be considered a gift. Bennell, like Greene, had some significant off-field issues, and major questions over his professionalism. The Giants helped Greene turn it around – the Suns failed to do the same for Bennell, and now he plies his trade for Fremantle (well, for Fremantle’s recovery group).
Turning a raw talent into a professional performer who makes the most of his talent is the hardest and most important task that an AFL club faces. To do that without the aid of any historical club culture, to in fact be doing that while trying to build said club culture, is even harder.
The Giants have done this extraordinarily well. If they do hold up the premiership cup – be it this year, next, or one of the many to come after that – their premiership will be as deserved, as earned as any in the history of the game.
Because while we can talk about all the advantages they’ve had, one simple fact remains – to get a flag, you’ve got to do the work. You’ve got to win it. That’s something you can never gift.
Things heating up in Canberra!
We’re taking a look at one player from each team that needs to make a difference this week, starting with the ANZAC Day games.
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