Warren Tredrea: Greater Western Sydney Giants have grown up, now their grand moment awaits in AFL grand final
The Giants have paid their dues after overcoming adversity. It’s now over to them to prove they are worthy of claiming glory on the game’s greatest stage against Richmond on Saturday.
Warren Tredrea
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GWS Giants have paid their dues and their date with destiny awaits.
Once hailed as the Ferrari from western Sydney who are all out attack and no defence, they now epitomise a hardworking tradesman’s ute with a fully-optioned V8 engine under the bonnet.
The Giants have grown up.
Who can forget the early years, where Kevin Sheedy’s newbies were bashed from pillar to post week-in, week-out.
I often wondered whether constantly getting belted would have long-term effects on their young guns, and if they’d ever fulfil their potential — I was wrong.
They were handed unbelievable concessions to acquire the best young talent in the land — who could forget the draft hands of 2011, with selections 1-5 as well as 7,9,10,11,13 and 14.
In 2012, the Giants gained picks 1, 2 and 3, while in 2013 it was picks 1 and 2.
That’s 16 first-round picks, netting superstars Stephen Coniglio, Lachie Whitfield and Josh Kelly.
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While selecting the young guns was the easy part, keeping hold of them was another matter.
Over the journey, the Giants have seen Tom Scully, Dylan Shiel, Taylor Adams, Adam Treloar, Dom Tyson, Nathan Wilson, Devon Smith, Will Hoskin-Elliott and Tom Boyd all leave.
And while in many cases the Giants have had to reluctantly trade them out (salary cap constraints or the go home factor), more often than not when they departed, the Giants were given more early draft picks in return, continuing the drafting cycle.
It’s a strategy that has paid dividends, with the Giants having won a final in each of the past four seasons — culminating in their first grand final appearance this Saturday.
But who could forget the 2016 heartbreak of a home preliminary final loss to the Western Bulldogs — seven days later the Dogs broke a 62-year premiership drought.
In 2017, the Giants suffered more preliminary final heartache, losing to eventual premier Richmond, who broke a 37-year drought.
And after a semi-final exit in 2018, many thought the Giants’ premiership window could be starting to close.
But this group has been through and matured a lot. They lost co-captain Callan Ward to a knee reconstruction in April, and arguably their best midfielder Coniglio to a PCL knee injury in Round 17.
Only last week, Lachie Whitfield was ruled out of the preliminary final after having appendix surgery and Toby Greene was suspended for making unnecessary contact with Lachie Neale’s face.
But the Giants continue to play like their namesake. You only need to look at their brilliant wet-weather football to three-quarter time in the win over the Pies as evidence — they led the favoured Collingwood by 26 points after kicking the last six goals of the contest.
But to truly understand the Giants’ resilience, their last quarter had to be seen to be believed.
Early in the final term, after Jeremy Cameron kicked the first goal of the quarter to put the Giants 33 points up, the game appeared over.
But someone forgot to tell Collingwood. From then on, the Giants didn’t score, while Collingwood piled on 4.5 and had 11 more inside-50s for the final term.
Leon Cameron’s men were like a champion title fighter taking body blows, but they refused to go down — and Collingwood couldn’t land the knockout punch.
Their ability to hold the ball inside the contest and draw stoppage after stoppage, denying Collingwood space on the ball, was that of legend.
The Giants refused to die, even after a Josh Thomas goal that was incorrectly allowed to stand after it was clearly touched, an ARC shocker.
T
his had the potential to take the air out of the Giants players lungs. It didn’t, they fought like their life depended on it, eventually claiming an epic four-point win.
This weekend, the Giants will draw on the fact two out of the past three premiers have come from preliminary finals that were decided by the smaller margin.
With Greene to return from suspension and questions around the fitness of Whitfield and Coniglio, tough decisions have to be made.
And to think only a few weeks ago some were calling into question the future of Cameron.
The Giants are the real deal. No one is giving them a chance of claiming premiership glory, with Richmond the overwhelming favourites.
Let’s not forget, no one thought they’d defeat Brisbane at the Gabba or Collingwood at the MCG without a host of stars — yet they did.
Why should Richmond on their home deck on grand final day be any different?
The Giants have paid their dues — it’s now over to them to prove they are worthy of claiming glory.