‘You don’t want to leave’: Why unheralded Giants defender Harry Perryman wants to keep the good times rolling at GWS
Harry Perryman is an unsung hero of the Giants backline but loved by teammates, and he’s excited to see where his defensive cohort - and the Giants - can take their season.
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One of the key mantras for the Giants is to ‘celebrate’. The word is plastered on various walls around their HQ at Sydney Olympic Park and it’s ensconced in the actions of everything they do, on and off the field.
Nothing typifies it more than the way they reflect on their defence. Sam Taylor has arguably become the best key defender in the competition, with his teammates Jack Buckley and Connor Idun not far behind. Throw in the likes of Harry Himmelberg and Lachie Whitfield, and it’s a backline group that easily could be considered the most proficient in the AFL.
They hunt as a pack and see themselves as a ‘back seven’. Every individual battle won is a victory for the group.
And while the names mentioned above might steal the headlines, it’s the unheralded Harry Perryman who is arguably the most vital to the Giants’ impervious defence.
“He’s just a teammate you trust,” Josh Kelly said. “You know exactly what you’re getting out of him.
“He’s a guy you love running out next to and a guy who you miss when he’s not out there and then he’s straight back to doing his thing.”
Over the past eight seasons, Perryman has quickly established himself as the unassuming cog of the Giants’ transition into attack.
In the club’s orange tsunami highlight videos, it’s often the 25-year-old who finds that handball to put a teammate into space or receives the first kick to start a wave of movement into the forward half.
It’s why Adam Kingsley didn’t hesitate to bring him back into the team after he missed the opening clash of the season against Collingwood with a minor hamstring injury. Despite Nick Haynes’ impressive performance against the Pies, the veteran was relegated to the sub role so the Giants’ main back seven could be reunited.
“I wanted to play against the Pies in that round zero game, but it’s a long year and over the years I’ve learned not to rush coming back early,” Perryman said.
“There’s depth, but at the same time, any AFL game you miss that’s not what you want. I don’t want to give up a game at all because there are plenty of good players not playing.
“Our back line gets spoken about a bit, but it’s been a core group for a couple of years now. Even when we weren’t winning games a couple of years ago, our back seven was holding up well.
“The younger boys have watched a lot of our older boys back in the day and learned a lot from them. It’s driven them to be hungry and get in the position they’re in now.”
Despite the cohesion, Perryman is far from satisfied with how he has started his 2024 season.
Last year was his most productive for the Giants, appearing in 20+ matches for the first time in his career. But as a result, he knows what his best footy looks like and he feels he is still shaking out some of the rust from the off-season.
“I’ve been okay, but there’s certainly a lot more improvement in myself,” he said.
“I like being hard to play against, playing multiple roles, using my foot skills and I like to back myself in the air a bit too. They’re just a couple of things I need to improve on heading through the season.”
As a Giants Academy product hailing from the NSW Riverina, seeing the club up and about is music to Perryman’s ears. However, he’s also one of just a handful of players in GWS’ best 23 coming off contract at the end of the year.
Talks are progressing well between the two parties, with Perryman’s last couple of contracts only being two-year extensions. And he’s eager to put pen to paper to keep the good times rolling.
“That’s obviously working away in the background,” he said.
“You see a lot of the good teams and back lines over the years that have won big finals, they keep their core group together. I feel like that’s the kind of group we’ve got and it’s something you don’t want to leave, that’s for sure.
“They’re all playing career-best footy, and they’re only young as well so they’ve got another 10 years ahead of them. There’s also the next wave coming through who want to be the next Buckley, Idun or Taylor.
“That’s the culture we want to build here to keep our club up and contending for finals each year.”
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