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Highlights: Giants lock in top four finish with big win over North

Jonathon Patton of the Giants. (AAP Image/Julian Smith)
Roar Guru
27th August, 2016
22

The Giants got the job done tonight against a rather lacklustre North Melbourne.

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While the Roos had slightly more possession over all, and did a reasonable job of controlling play at times, they struggled badly to generate real scoring opportunities for most of the night.

By contrast, GWS may not have been at their thrilling best, but when given the chance they counterattacked with purpose and direction. Once again, they deliberately and consistently put the ball into dangerous positions in the forward line, and were rewarded by excellent performances from Jon Patton with five goals, and Steve Johnson with four sharking at the feet of the big forwards.

North started the game brightly, with Ben Brown getting on top of the Giants’ defence early and kicking three goals in the opening term. The Roos settled into something of a possession-focused game, which kept the contest tight and made GWS work hard for their inside 50s, but also robbed the home side of any real attacking impetus.

Consequently, North Melbourne only managed consecutive goals once in the entire match. They simply weren’t potent enough.

For long periods of the game, both sides were able to hold the ball in their forward line for several minutes on end, often peppering the goals with shots, but only rarely relieving the pressure with a major. Both teams would be happy with their forward pressure, but perhaps a little underwhelmed with their own scoring effectiveness, ahead of the finals.

As the game wore on, repeatedly the Giants took better advantage of their chances, and it was in the third quarter that they turned that into a significant lead, kicking four goals to one to go into the last change with a five-goal advantage.

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With an upset looking unlikely, and North not really with anything to play for, there wasn’t much intensity in the last quarter, and the Giants closed it out a bit better to finish 37-point winners.

This leaves GWS with a guaranteed spot in the top four, and most likely they’ll play crosstown rivals the Sydney Swans in the first week of the finals. That would be a dream result for the AFL, and probably for the young Giants, who comfortably won the last matchup between those two sides.

Despite not having the strongest finish to the season all things considered, GWS could now get through to the Grand Final without having to leave Sydney. That’s a very promising position to be in.

They will be particularly happy with the late season form of Jonathon Patton, who goes into his first finals series in the best form of his career. Devon Smith also appears to be back to his best after spending most of the season injured.

North were always going to finish in eighth, no matter the result tonight.

There were two things to play for in this game: to send out their four departing veterans in Drew Petrie, Brent Harvey, Nick Dal Santo and Michael Firrito with dignity and pride, and to show something to indicate that they can make more of an impact in the finals than their late season form would indicate.

Unfortunately they didn’t really achieve either of those.

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Harvey was one of their better players, with 26 touches and 2 goals. Dal Santo was serviceable, but Petrie and Firrito were both well down tonight, and might well struggle to retain their place in the team for the first week of the finals, with Thompson and Waite to return.

North can play a controlled game at times, and they can apply enough defensive pressure to stop an opponent from racking up a big score, but it’s very hard indeed to see them scoring heavily against quality opposition based on their indifferent showing this evening.

The Roos will probably travel to Adelaide Oval to meet the Crows in two weeks. As disappointing as the Crows were last night, it’s hard to see North as anything other than cannon fodder in that contest, a mere footnote in this year’s finals series.

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