Mick McGuane: Why GWS needs to prove its quality after costly fade out against Essendon

After a costly fade out — and huge missed opportunity — last week against Essendon, we’re about to learn if GWS is the real deal, says Mick McGuane.

Mick McGuane says it’s time for GWS to prove itself as a real contender against finals threat Brisbane Lions. Picture: AAP Image/Julian Smith.

Are the Giants the real deal?

How they respond to their late fade out against Essendon last week could tell us much when they face Brisbane Lions on Sunday.

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They were clearly gutted having been in a very strong position last Thursday, only to lose.

It just proves that to win games of AFL footy, if you don’t go from go to woe, and as much as you dominate so many facets of the game and you don’t go hard enough for long enough, a result like last week against Essendon creates that anomaly.

And that’s exactly what transpired against the Bombers.

GWS wilted when Essendon turned up the pressure during their clash last round. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images.

I felt watching the game, the Giants were in control for most of the fixture and when Toby Greene kicked his solitary goal with just over 22 minutes remaining to put the Giants 19 points in front, one would thought a well-deserved victory in Melbourne, a chance to eradicate self-doubt — team doubt — that we can’t win big games of footy against good opposition on a fast deck in Melbourne.

More so when you dominate possession. The stoppage work was a positive. Their contested work at the end of the game shows plus 25 so one immediately says you can’t question the Giants players’ intent or effort in and around the ball.

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They got their kick mark game going with 104 marks, of which 87 were uncontested. They were in front for over two thirds of the game.

The question there probably translates to how did you lose a game with those numbers in your favour? And to align it with that ‘hard enough, long enough’ philosophy and you assess the last 20 minutes of play and go through it.

This is where the message will be shoved down the throats of the players to say ‘we’re in a position to win a game but then you were outpossessed by 21 disposals in the last 20 minutes and were minus four in contested possession when the game was up for grabs’.

They stopped running on the outside as they were minus 17 in uncontested possession. They got outscored by 25 points in that period of time.

And the biggest issue was they couldn’t handle Essendon’s forward half pressure rating of 236 in this period of the game. The Bombers players upped the ante and the Giants players succumbed to that pressure.

Mick McGuane says it’s time for GWS to prove itself as a real contender against finals threat Brisbane Lions. Picture: AAP Image/Julian Smith.

With those damning last 20 minutes of numbers that were clearly in the negative you can see why the Bombers deserved their victory.

And if you go back to Leon Cameron’s press conference where he stipulated “we weren’t harder for longer and we weren’t smarter for longer’ you can see why he made those comments”.

That’s against a team outside the eight. Now they’re facing one inside the eight and playing really exciting footy, the Lions.

So we’ll find out whether the Giants, who would have gone to school about this fade out, have learned from those experiences.

So here’s a great opportunity to find out are they the real deal or are they a team that is exciting one week, considering how good they were against North Melbourne, but then seven days later throw that away by not being harder for longer in a game that was clearly within their reach.

They clearly last week gave away far too many free kicks through poor aggression or discipline and that’s another message that I’m sure will be drummed in by the coaching staff.

The other aspect is goalkicking. They have got to take their chances.