AFL preliminary final: Collingwood v GWS, stats highlight Giants’ second-quarter dominance

Craig McRae better have one of the great quarter-time speeches planned for Friday night. If he doesn’t, the Orange Tsunami which flattened St Kilda and Port Adelaide is coming.

The Giants’ Orange Tsunami is here to stay, but it’s the second quarter where it’s been at it’s most damaging. Picture: Phil Hillyard

If Collingwood have their wits about them, they’ll sound a siren around the MCG just after quarter time on Friday night.

It should be loud enough to get fans into their seats and alert the players of the danger they’re about to face.

St Kilda didn’t see it coming. Port Adelaide was too late to react.

And the Giants will be hoping the Pies become the team to fall victim to the Orange Tsunami.

In the past two weeks, GWS has clicked into gear in the second quarter and blown their opposition off the park.

Against St Kilda, it was eight consecutive goals stretching into the second term that opened the lead out to 42 points and all but ended the contest.

It was a similar story against Port as the Giants kicked five goals in 10 minutes in the second quarter.

Stephen Coniglio kicked one of five second-quarter goals for the Giants against Port Adelaide. Picture: Phil Hillyard

“Port started well, and I thought maybe in the first 10 minutes their pressure was better than ours,” Stephen Coniglio said.

“But once we were able to turn that around and convert some of the scores in that second quarter, it went a long way to us feeling really confident at half time.

“And we probably left four or five goals out there … that’s how dominant we were in that quarter.

“But it wasn’t, ‘Let’s come out now in the second quarter’. It was just a flow on of being able to minimise their damage.”

GWS v Port
Q2 04:07-14:30 - Giants +31
Rest of game - Port +8

GWS v StK
Q2 10:59-20:35 - Giants +25
Rest of game - StK +1

Craig McRae working on one of the all-time quarter-time speeches #secondquartertsunami

— Al Paton (@al_superfooty) September 16, 2023

Coniglio starred in that term, registering 13 disposals, three clearances and a goal as the Giants opened up a game-high 33-point lead.

By half-time, the Giants were also +51 on handballs and +62 on uncontested possessions. They swarmed Port Adelaide with speed, got the ball into their forward 50 and capitalised.

The thing that sticks out for GWS is that this hasn’t been a trend all season.

Notoriously, the second quarter has been one of their worst terms for the year.

Up until round 22, the Giants’ points differential in the second term was -85, the third-lowest mark in the competition. Since the round 23 win over Essendon, that same value is +74 which is the best in the AFL.

On both occasions in the finals, they’ve slightly dropped their standards by the end of the term and allowed their opponents a path back into the game. But for the most part, the damage has already been done.

And that gives the team a huge confidence boost going into half time with that momentum.

Belief continues to build that this could be the Giants’ year. Picture: Phil Hillyard

What also became obvious against the Power in that term was how the Giants’ performance completely silenced the parochial Adelaide Oval crowd.

All the energy from the Port fans had disappeared, just as it did a week earlier against St Kilda. It meant the Giants could walk off the ground with their heads held high, knowing the game was theirs to lose in the second half.

If they can replicate that in the cauldron of the MCG with more than 90,000 Collingwood supporters, it will go a long way to securing their second grand final berth.

“(It’s) being able to realise that we can do it,” Coniglio said.

“We were (at Adelaide Oval) a couple of weeks earlier and we weren’t able to silence the crowd. It felt like we had 40,000 against us that day.

“On the weekend, I’m telling you, we could hear every cheer that was coming from the Orange Army. I’m hoping that’s the case again.

“I know there’s going to be a few in black and white there on the weekend, but if we can get 20,000 in orange then that would be awesome.”