Gary Buckenara analyses Greater Western Sydney’s list after the 2019 season
GWS has always had one of the best list profiles in the competition, with the exception of one big hole. However, all that changed in the trade period. List guru Gary Buckenara looks at just how good the Giants can be in 2020.
Gary Buckenara
Don't miss out on the headlines from Gary Buckenara. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Robbo’s Top 50: Have your say on every player
- Love footy? Why it’s good to subscribe to the Herald Sun
The Grand Final hammering will either make or break Greater Western Sydney.
There are enough experienced football people at the club to help the players come to terms with the loss and teach them to use it as motivation for 2020 rather than an experience that will destroy them for next season.
The players have to let it go, but before they can do that they must learn from it. AFL premierships are hard to win and unfortunately, big losses can happen in a Grand Final.
Stream over 50 sports Live & On-Demand with KAYO SPORTS on your TV, computer, mobile or tablet. Just $25/month, no lock-in contract. Get your 14-day free trial and start streaming instantly >
The positive is they made it and got the monkey off the back so to speak, given the Giants had lost two preliminary finals before finally breaking through this year. Winning a premiership is hard but it’s equally as hard to actually make it to the Grand Final.
The players, coaches and football department need to look at it like this: We have actually achieved more than we have in any time in our history. Yes, the game didn’t go well and we got slaughtered but let’s use that experience of Grand Final week, because we’ll be better for it, and let’s show the footy world we’re a better team than what we showed on Grand Final day.
That’s how you’ve got to motivate the players to actually forget it, learn from it and use it to drive them. We want to get there again. That’s the goal. We’re desperate to get there again and show we’re better than that.
The mental side of the game will be the most important aspect of GWS’s off-season and pre-season because unlike most other clubs, they don’t really have holes on their list (aside from the ruck, which I’ll get to shortly).
The Giants seemingly have an endless supply of top-end talent with 18 A, B and C+-grade players on the list, plus a further six players (will become seven with the likely addition of academy player Tom Green in the draft) aged 21 or under with the talent to develop into A or B-graders in the future.
Then there’s the addition of Sam Jacobs as No. 1 ruck, which will help a lot. He’s the missing piece of the puzzle.
The ruck position has been the Giants’ only weakness since the retirement, and subsequent return, of Shane Mumford. While Mumford was good this year, he didn’t quite recapture his best. Jacobs has been so durable throughout his career, he’s a smart player and a very good tap ruckman, so we could see a different GWS midfield set-up next year where clearance will play a much bigger role as Jacobs gives the likes of Josh Kelly, Stephen Coniglio, Callan Ward — who will return from a knee reconstruction — and Jacob Hopper first use.
LIST NEEDS
There is good positional flexibility on the list, which gives the coaches more options to cover injuries when they occur as they can throw players into different roles with confidence, even mid-game as we saw in the preliminary final when Lachlan Keeffe was thrown into defence and performed really well when Phil Davis got injured.
Rory Lobb was more of a loss for the Giants this year than they anticipated. He added so much in terms of being a very mobile ruck back-up who can also play as a genuine marking forward. The Giants need to find a forward-ruckman who can help out Jacobs because Mumford doesn’t have the capacity to be an effective forward option when he’s not in the ruck.
LIST BREAKDOWN
A: Phil Davis, Stephen Coniglio, Toby Greene, Jeremy Cameron, Josh Kelly, Lachie Whitfield
B+: Callan Ward, Heath Shaw, Zac Williams
B: Sam Jacobs
B-: Jacob Hopper, Nick Haynes
C+: Matt Buntine, Matt de Boer, Harry Himmelberg, Jeremy Finlayson, Aidan Corr, Sam Reid, Shane Mumford
C: Zac Langdon, Lachlan Keeffe, Daniel Lloyd, Adam Kennedy, Dylan Buckley, Tom Sheridan
C-: Nil
Developing*: Tim Taranto, Sam Taylor, Jye Caldwell, Jackson Hately, Ian Hill, Xavier O’Halloran
Developing: Isaac Cumming, Brent Daniels, Zach Sproule, Matthew Flynn, Nick Shipley, Harry Perryman, Jack Buckley, Jack Stein, Callum Brown, Kieren Briggs, Connor Idun
DRAFT STRATEGY
The departures of Jon Patton (Hawthorn) and Adam Tomlinson (Melbourne) mean the Giants have lost a little bit of key position depth even though Tomlinson was playing predominantly on the wing and across halfback this year. This draft isn’t strong for key position talent but I’d be looking at bringing in a developing key forward to add a bit more depth in that area behind Cameron, Himmelberg and Finlayson. The Finlayson forward experiment worked this year but it’s no guarantee to be a success again next year as he was still a little inconsistent.
The Giants should also look at the state leagues to find that forward-ruckman to help Jacobs.
CRYSTAL BALL
GWS should be one of the teams to beat again next year but expectation on this group to deliver a premiership will only continue to grow. The Giants should have won some silverware by now, so the clock is ticking on this group. This is a highly-talented team that should deliver a flag — but that’s easier said than done.
If they can eventually have some luck with injuries, which has been their downfall the last few years, they will be seriously hard to beat.