Editor
The GWS Giants have given the Richmond Tigers an almighty thrashing, coming away the winners by 88 points on Saturday afternoon.
» Click here to read the full match report
Final score
GWS 17.9.111
Richmond 3.5.23
Firmly in the hunt for a top four finish, the GWS Giants return to Canberra to face the Richmond Tigers. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 1:45pm (AEST).
At second on the ladder, with the competition’s best percentage, Greater Western Sydney are a legitimate contender to hold the premiership cup aloft this October.
An embarrassing home loss to Collingwood three weeks ago saw doubters emerge from everywhere, but since then it’s been business as usual for the Giants. A 79-point demolition of Brisbane followed by a 19-point away win over Port Adelaide sees the club sitting atop a logjam at 12-5.
With Gold Coast, West Coast (home), Fremantle (home) and North Melbourne to close out the year, the Giants will be every chance of gliding into September in white-hot form.
Richmond thought 2016 would be the year their slowly-crafted list would really hit its stride, but instead it looks like the Tigers will have to go back to the drawing board once more.
Sitting just one win outside the bottom four, it doesn’t get much easier for Richmond with Collingwood, Geelong, St Kilda and Sydney to close out the season.
Their recent form has been poor too, with a very unconvincing win over Essendon and a 70-point loss to Hawthorn setting up Tigers fans for a gloomy finish to a bitterly disappointing year.
GWS have never beaten Richmond in five matches, although they’ve ticked a number of teams off that list in 2016.
This is the first encounter between these sides in Canberra, where the Giants have won four of their last five.
Prediction
GWS got a huge wake-up call in their last home game, and you can be sure Leon Cameron won’t let his side underestimate another opponent this year.
With that, as well as Richmond’s poor recent form, in mind – the Giants should claim this one comfortably.
Giants by 41 points.