Belted and ridiculed, the Giants have walked the hard road to the big time, writes Dermott Brereton

HUMILIATED, belted and ridiculed in the early days, the Giants have walked the hard road to the big time and are ready for a Grand Final, writes Dermott Brereton.

Jonathan Patton celebrates a GWS goal.

RICHMOND is the romantic favourite in Victoria. Whether by fault or folly, the Tigers’ finals record since their most recent premiership in 1980 has been failure after failure.

Who better to play the role of villain this time around than Greater Western Sydney?

The Giants have been put together like Frankenstein’s bride — a monster that overshadows the competition with talent about which 17 rival clubs can only dream.

MARATHON MAN: SCULLY BORN TO RUN ON MCG

TEAM NAMED: GIANTS PUT TRUST IN STEVIE J, DELEDIO

FAST FRIENDS: HOW “SERIAL PEST” WON OVER STEVIE J

FORMER COACH: CHOCO CAN’T LOSE ON GIANTS OR TIGERS

Through a combination of AFL generosity and their own intelligent creativity with trades and the draft in the past five seasons, the Giants have put together a list with 29 first-round draft selections.

Richmond has had five in the same period.

Counting Dylan Shiel and Nathan Wilson (both 16-year-old pre-listed signings) as first-round draft picks, the Giants will take to the field with 17 players drafted in the first round.

Greater Western Sydney celebrates its first AFL win in 2012. Picture: Kym Smith

Ten of those players went in the top 10 of their drafts. By comparison, Richmond has nine first-rounders and five top 10 selections.

Pacy, hardworking backman-midfielder Zac Williams is a rarity in the Giants line-up. Apart from being a very good and incredibly important player, he is the only original rookie-listed Giant to make it to this game.

Matt de Boer was also rookie-listed, but he was hand-picked at the end of last season to provide greater experience, grunt and depth to an abnormally talented but young midfield. Williams is the only survivor in a world of the “hard yards”.

Considering how much talent, concessions and head start that City Hall appears to have heaped on the Giants, it would be easy to barrack against them.

Some might say they are like the rich kids given everything and made to earn nothing.

The Tigers, meanwhile, have had 37 years of hard grind and disappointment.

Dejected Giants leave the field after a 113-point loss to Richmond. Picture: Phil Hillyard

The Australian way is to barrack for the underdog.

But I view this group of GWS lads differently. Yes, they are super talented and as teenagers they knew it. But I was fortunate enough to work part-time with some of them in their first four years and to see these young men walk into training week in week out after copping 100-point beltings was not something you want any talented teenager to live through.

Young players drafted to other teams could experience success quickly, but the young Giants were dragging their butts along the ground and their bottom lips hung low.

In their first two seasons, they suffered 26 beatings by 10 goals or more.

But these kids were fantastic. They were so disappointed, but they kept fronting up, wanting to learn and believing that the next weekend would be the turnaround.

Among the heavy losses were three glorious wins that meant so much.

The first was against Gold Coast in Canberra in Round 7 in 2012. To see these boys triumph after endless hardship made it one of the best wins I have witnessed. The emotion after the game was enormous.

Some teams over-celebrate wins and it can hurt them down the track, but this win and the huge celebration was justified.

A crowd of about 200 Giants fans watch their side train at the MCG. Picture: Phil Hillyard

It was the day the Giants learned to believe in their future as a group.

It is human nature to see the Giants and assume that they are a cavalier group, cobbled together to win automatically.

But I see a group of young men hardened by the early days. They had their teenage souls pulled apart by better opposition. They had to listen to some media call for their club to be abolished. And they endured ridicule that they weren’t a true club.

But I see how these young men have bonded. They’ve been kicked in the butt so often they now have a steely resolve, a sense of pride to be together and a real hard edge.

Their coach, Leon Cameron, loves them.

But some would question whether Cameron is a hard enough character.

What I will divulge is that several times I have heard his voice at a level where I thought the paint would start to peel off the wall. Yes, he can deliver the hard line.

Don’t be fooled that the team you see tonight is the AFL’s version of the Harlem Globetrotters.

These boys have been through the furnace and now they believe it is their time to win.