GWS coach Leon Cameron says the Giants’ underdog status won’t be a driving force ahead of the AFL grand final against Richmond.
GWS coach Leon Cameron knows Richmond will go into the AFL grand final as hot favourites, but he’s not interested in using the underdog tag as motivation.
The Giants won through to their first premiership decider when they outplayed Collingwood for three quarters then hung on to claim a four-point preliminary final thriller at the MCG on Saturday night.
It was the latest in a string of surprise results for GWS, who didn’t finish the home-and-away season well, but still claimed sixth spot on the ladder.
The Western Bulldogs were ‘supposed’ to win their elimination final at Giants Stadium and second-placed Brisbane were most assuredly ‘meant’ to end the Giants’ season in their semi-final at the Gabba.
But it’s not about who’s supposed to win according to other people for GWS.
“I understand there’s always going to be an underdog story,” Cameron said.
“The Dogs were magnificent in ’16, then Richmond came in ’17 when people probably didn’t think they would win it.
“We don’t really draw on that.
“We’ll probably be fair underdogs against Richmond, but at the end of the day, when the ball bounces, both sides have got everything to lose.
“If we get beaten or if we win the game next weekend, we won’t be sitting here blaming an underdog tag or blaming injuries or what’s happened in the past.
“When the ball bounces it’s going to be on.”
The Giants will get star forward Toby Greene back from suspension and Lachie Whitfield is likely to return after having his appendix removed.
“He’s a massive chance, a huge chance, but if he’s not fit or healthy enough to play 100 minutes of footy, then we won’t pick him,” Cameron said.
“But all the signs are heading in the right direction.
“The surgery was really simple … every box was ticked there, so there was no setbacks in surgery.
“Lachie Whitfield will definitely be putting his hand up next week.”
Co-captain Phil Davis played out the match against the Pies with a sore calf, but Cameron is quietly confident scans will won’t show any serious injury.
Stephen Coniglio, having not played since round 17 with a knee injury and surgery, will also press his claim for a grand-final berth.
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The Giants must be a chance to roll the Tigers in the Grand Final. Finals are entirely a different level to roster games, however, during the roster game against Richmond the result was 27 points (94-67) with the Tigers kicking the only four goals of the first quarter. This is the game that Coniglio went down in the opening minutes, plus there was no Kelly, Mumford, and De Boer. This loss to the Tigers in round 17 was the last of a losing streak of three games. Missing from that game from the Richmond squad that played the Cats in the Preliminary final were Nankervis, Graham, Baker and Caddy. Bachar Houli had another day out with 30 disposals with Brownlow predictor expecting him to be in the votes so you would gather that the Giants will put some time into him as he is averaging 28 possessions for the year. Giants will probably need to kick 80 points to have any chance of winning as the only team to kick in excess of 70 points against the Tigers since the bye was the West Coast Eagles (82) in a narrow loss. Both teams have injury concerns.