AFL: Brisbane Lions overrun struggling GWS Giants

The Giants face a must-win ‘grand final rematch’ against Richmond after losing to the Lions by 20 points.

Cam Rayner of the Brisbane Lions is tackled Lachlan Ash of the GWS Giants during the round-7 AFL match on Saturday. Picture: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

Greater Western Sydney coach Leon Cameron says the Giants are no longer a top-tier side as they brace for a must-win AFL ‘grand final rematch’ against Richmond.

A bitterly disappointed Cameron couldn’t hide his frustration at his team’s awful start against Brisbane on Saturday, conceding the Giants were then left “clutching” for the rest of the 20-point loss despite staging a third-quarter comeback.

The Brisbane Lions won 88-68.

GWS have now lost two straight games and risk being leapfrogged by two more sides on Sunday, in a week where they must turn their attention to the benchmark Tigers who embarrassed them in last year’s Grand Final.

Toby Greene missed the Lions clash, but Cameron warned his team can’t afford to get into the mentality that the star forward can fix all their problems if he returns to face the premiers – because the brutal reality is they’ve fallen a long way off the pace.

“The last two games we’ve got beaten by Two-and-a-half or three goals, which shows a couple of things. And that is we are a rung off the top-liners at the moment,” Cameron said.

“There was some better stuff … but then a couple of other things reared up which shows the lack of consistency and no doubt the boys are down a bit on confidence.

“We have to fight through this as a footy club. We have to hang in there when things aren’t going well. We’ve done it in the past and I’m really backing our players to do it again this year.”

“There’s that logjam and we’re in that logjam. We win a couple and lose a couple. They’re disappointed. They’re flat at the moment,” Cameron said.

“We need to take responsibility.

“Stepping up at the right time is a huge challenge for us. You’re clutching all the time. You don’t want to be doing that. You want to be sticking to process and doing that over and over again.

“Whether Toby comes in or not we can’t rely on one player … we need to find it and find it fast. But we look forward to doing that.”

Brisbane coach Chris Fagan said the 88-68 win, which involved some drastic momentum shifts, was just what the doctor ordered for his side after they blew a huge lead last week against Geelong.

“It was good to have that game after last week because last week after Geelong came at us, we didn’t respond,” Fagan said.

“Today showed we’d learned a lot from last week’s game. We were able to respond each time that GWS had a run at us, which is really pleasing.

“They showed good composure today, and dug in when they needed to.”

Fagan is refusing to buy into speculation that the Lions could benefit from the prospect that large parts of the rest of the season could now be played in Queensland, with all Victorian teams to relocate to the sunny State.

“There’s no assumptions on our behalf and I don’t think that necessarily gives us an advantage,” he said.

Stephen Coniglio stood up to be counted for GWS, but the captain’s knock was not enough to stop the bleeding for a struggling Giants side overrun by Brisbane.

The Lions catapulted back into second place on the ladder, with defensive powerhouse Harris Andrews once again a tower of strength and Charlie Cameron and Cam Rayner producing the killer blows upfront in the convincing 20-point win at Giants Stadium.

Lachie Neale, Cam Rayner, Lincoln McCarthy and Charlie Cameron of the Lions share a laugh as they leave the field after victory. Picture: Getty Images

After hammering home the first four goals of the match, Brisbane cantered ahead by 32 points early in the third, before the orange tsunami clicked and reduced the margin to just eight shortly before the final break.

However, Rayner came from nowhere to claim a stunning pack mark – one of the best of the season – before going back to kick the turning point goal at the end of the third and settle Brisbane’s nerves.

From there, the Lions kicked again in the last to reassert their position as title contenders – consigning GWS coach Cameron to some further headaches this week as he tries desperately to get last year’s Grand Finalists gelling again before it’s too late.

The Giants missed a chance to move back into the top eight, and now risk dropping out of top-four contention soon if they can’t break out of their current funk.

Coniglio responded to speculation over his place in the team with a game-high 27 disposals and nine clearances in what was the skipper’s best game since the season resumption.

For the second week in a row, the Lions lost direction in the third quarter, leaving coach Fagan sitting on the edge of his seat.

Last week at the SCG, the Lions appeared to be cruising against Geelong before being completely dismantled after halftime.

On Saturday they still escaped with victory over GWS, but they did it the hard way – giving up a 32-point lead early in the third to concede four goals straight.

Jeremy Cameron kicked two goals, including a potential game-changing screamer from 50m out, before Matt de Boer closed out the third with a great finish.

The Giants made big improvements against the Lions, and showed once again they are capable of mixing it with the best teams in the competition – but for inside-50s, GWS is still getting humiliated.

After three quarters GWS was minus 17 for inside-50s.

Once again, the supreme efficiency of the Giants forwards kept them in the hunt – operating at 59 per cent efficiency inside 50 – but giving away that level of discrepancy is simply not going to cut it in crunch matches.

The Sunday Telegraph