We have witnessed the talent that the Giants have, especially young guns like Stephen Coniglio and Dylan Shiel in the midfield.
We’ve also seen the experienced key players like Heath Shaw and Stevie Johnson. Their fast flowing ball movement has been their key to success so far but are the Giants slowly having another 2015 season?
Don’t get me wrong, the Giants have had an exceptional year this season beating quality sides such as the Dogs, Cats and Hawks. But are they having a repeat of what happened last season where they had an unbelievable start but then lost it at the final stretch?
In 2015, Greater Western Sydney had a fantastic start to the season just like this year but faded away in the middle to late part of the season heading towards finals. We all knew the team had talent but they couldn’t string together important wins when it really mattered.
I personally believe this start they have had is better than last season’s start because they have beaten fantastic sides and really found form. Their wins this season haven’t just been close ones, they have belted teams by an average of over 50 points which indicates that they aren’t luckily snatching wins but are playing awesome footy and reaping the rewards.
I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love watching this young team play. They play quite similar to the Dogs and Crows with fast ball movement which quite often leads to easy goals on the run.
If you have a look at the goal kickers for GWS, you’ll find a lot of their goals are kicked from their players in the middle like Tom Scully who push forward and help out the forward line. They are ranked second in the league in points scored which is the outcome of their attacking style of play.
While their forward line and midfield gets credit, a lot needs to be given to their backline. Heath Shaw has had an amazing year. The All Australian has provided a big part in stopping the opposition from scoring and has also racked up an average of 26.1 disposals a game!
Although their great start, GWS have had back-to-back losses in the last two weeks. We can’t be too hard on them for this, they lost to the Crows in Adelaide and Geelong at the cattery.
On paper you would probably expect them to lose one if not both of these games, but if the Giants want to have success this year, they need to be winning at least one of these games against the better sides.
Are they starting to fade away again? Not for me. But they do have the Swans this weekend and I think this will prove where the young talented team is at. Another loss to a top four team might bring out the Achilles heel in the Giants. Can they change what happened last season and make the finals or will we be just watching a replay of last year and waiting for them to make that next jump?
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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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Round 5 of the AFL provided plenty of action, from big scorelines to upset wins and pressure starting to build on some clubs and coaches already.
