GWS Giants enter their first AFL finals campaign as a genuine threat

THE GWS Giants team entering the first Sydney Derby final will not be comprised of a bunch of gun kids on work experience. It will be a formidable outfit, a genuine threat, a premiership contender.

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THE Greater Western Sydney team that lined up for its inevitable first finals series was supposed to be extraordinarily talented, but also unusually young and inexperienced.

It would comprise the cream of the nation’s young players. A battalion of first-round draftees heavy on ability, but not yet hardened for the rigours of the finals.

Five years later, these Giants are still relatively callow. Of the team that won the last home and away game against North Melbourne only six had played finals — Ryan Griffen, Callan Ward, Shane Mumford, Steven Johnson, Joel Patfull and Heath Shaw.

But a combination of wily list management, expert cattle trading and good fortune — counterintuitively, the inability to recruit star forward Lance Franklin has proven a blessing — has changed the complexion of the team that enters a historic first finals series.

GWS won’t just be making up numbers in the AFL finals ... They will be there with purpose.

A comparison with the more finals hardened Swans is informative. Of the anticipated line-ups for Saturday week’s qualifying final, GWS have the same number of 200-game players (four each). They also have only two players (Rory Lobb and Jacob Hopper) who have played less than 50 games while the rapidly ­renovated Swans have seven.

So the Giants team entering the first Sydney Derby final will not be comprised of a bunch of gun kids on work experience. It will be a formidable outfit approaching what the list builders like to call its competitive sweet spot.

Significantly for a team light on experience, those veterans who have played finals have prospered in them. Steve Johnson was Mr September in his three premiership seasons at Geelong. Heath Shaw performed the “smother of the millennium’’ — the game turning moment in Collingwood’s 2010 premiership. Shane Mumford was instrumental in the Swans 2012 premiership run.

The experience — not to mention the unique characteristics — of that magnetic trio has been a major factor in the club’s ascension this season. Their collective wisdom will be even more important as the younger Giants enter unfamiliar September territory.

The Giants have enjoyed remarkable success just five years into the club’s existence at the top level.

For the Giants as an emerging force, a first truly competitive season has provided both moments of affirmation and tests of character.

Among a number of outstanding performances — including five wins over fellow top eight teams — inevitably it was the Giants’ 42-point victory over the Swans in round 12 that was most celebrated.

The manner in which GWS controlled the stoppages against the hard-nosed Swans’ midfield was outstanding. Even if the Swans were on heavy legs having played in a Gold Coast swamp the previous week.

Yet the game that might mean the most to the Giants grand final tilt was easily their worst of the season — a 32-point drubbing by struggling Collingwood at Spotless Stadium.

How the finals will play out.

Before that game the Magpies had internally labelled the Giants’ midfielders as “downhill skiers’’ and, on game day, worked relentlessly to exploit what they felt was their habit of running ahead of the ball. Whether the Giants midfield merely had a bad day, or Collingwood had correctly identified a flaw, the result was alarming but, perhaps, also season-defining.

Doubtless that home ground debacle gave coach Leon Cameron much ammunition in subsequent weeks and will remain in the back of his players’ minds. Importantly, the Giants were ambushed mid-season not in a big final as could have been the case.

No matter how good the coaching and team management, successful finals campaigns always entail an element of fortune — be it fitness/health, favourable fixturing or even a sideways bounce of the ball.

Before last weekend, GWS had been cast as potentially the most dangerous floaters in a remarkably open premiership race.

Heath Shaw in action for the Giants earlier this year.

Then West Coast upset Adelaide, the Giants pushed themselves back inside the top four and — by a quirk of scheduling — will play the Swans at a venue in walking distance of their training venue.

The build-up will entail potential distractions. As the Swans retreat into their finals bubble, the Giants will be expected to promote the game and maximise any potential increase to their long-term support. As always they are missionaries, not just footballers.

While the Giants train in the shadows of ANZ Stadium, the venue is unfamiliar. Will a notoriously slippery surface suit their fleet-of-foot midfield or bring them skidding back to the field?

But this final, and this finals series, is a moment five years in the making. The Giants aren’t the young, potentially stage frightened team we expected under to see when they entered the finals arena.

They will face up to the Swans as a genuine threat, a premiership contender. Not merely a work in progress.

Originally published as GWS Giants enter their first AFL finals campaign as a genuine threat