GWS overcomes plucky Fremantle in windy conditions in Canberra

GWS moved to the top of the AFL table on Saturday afternoon but it wasn’t all easy for Leon Cameron’s side, with Mother Nature and Fremantle making the Giants earn their third win of 2018.

Neil Cordy

@neilcordy

3 min read

April 14, 2018 - 5:42PM

Tim Taranto and Callan Ward celebrate. Pic: AAP

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IT WAS no work of art but the Giants put their working boots on to graft a 31-point win against Fremantle in the national capital.

In blustery conditions, which made skills and scoring tough, GWS outworked the Dockers to extend their unbeaten run in Canberra to eight games and improve to 3-1 for the season.

The match wasn’t put to bed until midway through the last quarter when Jeremy Cameron booted his second goal but there was still plenty for Leon Cameron to like in the performance.

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Callan Ward thrived in the challenging conditions to pick up a game-high 34 possessions, including 12 contested, but the dominant performance came from defender Nick Haynes.

In a career-best effort the agile backman took 15 marks, including 12 intercepts, as he read the tricky conditions to perfection.

GWS co-captain Callan Ward collects in front of former teammate Nathan Wilson. Ward won a heap of the ball. Pic: AAP

“Nick reads the ball really well,” Giants coach Leon Cameron said.

“He knows when to let his man go into traffic and when to sit off. He can only get the ball like that when we pressure up the ground and we tackles well.”

There were also some welcome signs from two of his veterans in Ryan Griffen and Brett Deledio.

In his first game for a year Griffen finished with two important goals. His first in the opening minute of the match and the second at the start of the second quarter both came out-bodying his former teammate, Nathan Wilson.

“Ryan has had such wretched run with luck,” Cameron said.

Toby Greene was lively in attack for GWS. Pic: AAP

“He’s had some ups and downs. We went forward with him today because we thought we needed some speed in there and he did what he needed to do. He’s still a few weeks off getting back to his best.”

Deledio won plenty of the ball picking up 28 possessions including 12 contested in his best game as a Giant.

“Clearly it was Brett’s best game for our footy club,” Cameron said.

“We are confident Brett will get to the ability to play in the forward line. He stood out in terms of doing the basics well in tough conditions.”

In just his third game for GWS, ruckman Dawson Simpson competed well against star Dockers ruckman Aaron Sandilands. He did well to limit the big man’s damage and helped keep the clearance rates close.

Dawson Simpson (right) is the “spirit” of GWS, says Leon Cameron. Pic: AAP

“Dawson is the spirit of our footy club,” Cameron said.

“He won our coaches award last because he gives everything he’s got.”

After starting the year in red hot form Lachie Whitfield has come back to the pack with another quiet game as the Dockers’ Bailey Banfield limited his impact.

“He kept hanging in there,” Cameron said.

“Every player has their ups and downs and those downs can come when opposition target you. The good thing is he wants to learn how to deal with it.”

David Mundy, Lachie Neale and Stephen Hill were the best for Fremantle who were in the game when they booted the first two goals of the last quarter to close to 13 points.

“Haynes and Shaw were really good on our young forwards who got lost a bit,” Fremantle coach Ross Lyon said.

“I thought we fought on, Nathan Wilson got going after a quiet first half and we gave ourselves an opportunity. There’s some good learnings in that for our youth.”