AFL 2022: Mick McGuane believes new coach Adam Kingsley and GWS Giants are a perfect match

Adam Kingsley will lead the GWS Giants in the post-Leon Cameron era, and resident expert Mick McGuane has used his crystal ball to figure out what that might look like.

Adam Kingsley has signed a three-year deal to be the Giants’ next senior coach. Picture: Phil Hillyard

Prepare for new Giants coach Adam Kingsley to be the anti-Leon Cameron.

Cameron, as much success as he had, lost his coaching job because Greater Western Sydney’s ball movement became slow and drab and too preoccupied with protecting against turnover.

Modern AFL footy is a turnover game, with roughly 60 per cent of scoring coming from that source.

Analysts screamed for years for the Giants to embrace that trend but the argument was always that they were so strong at stoppages they wanted to build around that.

The biggest problem? They are no longer a great stoppage team and haven’t improved elsewhere to compensate. So what exactly is the GWS brand? What does this club stand for?

There’s an excellent opportunity for Kingsley to stamp his imprimatur on the Giants, fresh from four years at Richmond, a dominant turnover team under Damien Hardwick.

Giants chairman Tony Shepherd (right) officially welcomes new coach Adam Kingsley to the club. Picture: Phil Hillyard

He hinted as much at his first press conference in Sydney on Tuesday, when he speculated on where a team’s focus should lie between stoppage and turnover.

To me, it’s pretty obvious what Kingsley meant in that moment, even though he didn’t want to discuss what went wrong this year as GWS tumbled from winning a final to the bottom four.

The evolution at Collingwood this year under another ex-Tigers assistant, Craig McRae, is similar to what I think we will see at the Giants in 2023.

The Magpies, like Richmond, aren’t overly fussed about winning at the stoppage because they set up defensively in a way that is conducive to scoring.

They play high-risk, high-reward, fun footy. Barely a McRae media opportunity goes by without him mentioning the ‘fun’ word. Kingsley followed suit on Tuesday.

Adam Kingsley could be about to transform the Giants’ playing style. Picture: Phil Hillyard

“We’re trying to play that fast, attacking style of footy. I think that’s an attractive brand to play and it’s certainly great to watch and it’s fun to play,” Kingsley said.

But the only way that’s going to work is if GWS players buy into the Kingsley system.

They lost a lot of faith in each other in the past 12 months and that was evidenced on the field with how often they would break down without the ball and leave pockets of space for rivals to repeatedly cut through.

There was nowhere near enough pressure applied at the source and they were too tardy transitioning into a defensive mindset, while some players would retreat further afield.

The Giants might have an All-Australian defender in Sam Taylor but one man can’t do it alone, especially when opponents continually bring the ball deep inside 50.

There is doubt on whether Jacob Hopper (left) and Tim Taranto will remain at the Giants. Picture: Phil Hillyard

They ranked in the bottom half of the AFL for opposition scores per inside 50, as well as for how often teams turned a defensive 50 into an inside 50, pressure applied and midfield intercepts.

GWS was also poor defensively in the forward half. The Giants’ profile did not resemble the top-eight squad they were supposed to be, which was reflected in their ladder finish.

Everything I hear about Kingsley is that he understands the game and trends deeply but, importantly, is also happy to make people accountable for their role.

A few feathers might get ruffled early but the Giants need to be OK with that. Change is necessary if they want to win an elusive first flag.

There might not only be a turnover of players – Bobby Hill, Tim Taranto, Jacob Hopper and Tanner Bruhn among them – but also a belated transformation into a turnover team.

Originally published as AFL 2022: Mick McGuane believes new coach Adam Kingsley and GWS Giants are a perfect match