GWS Giants seal controversial comeback win over Essendon

A controversial free kick to Giants veteran Callan Ward in the dying stages sealed a comeback over the Bombers at Metricon Stadium.

GWS Giant Callan Ward’s controversial moment at Metricon Stadium that earned a free kick for the winning goal. Picture: Michael Klein

A controversial free kick to Giants veteran Callan Ward in the dying stages sealed a comeback win that kept GWS in the top eight and locked the Bombers out at Metricon Stadium on Friday night.

The Giants came back from 29 points down in a low-scoring game to win by just four points, 8.11 (59) to 8.7 (55), but it was a more-than-questionable free paid to a sprawling Ward following what was adjudicated as a high shot from Shaun McKernan inside the GWS forward 50 that proved the final nail in Essendon’s coffin.

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Ward nailed the goal from 50 metres out to give the Giants a 10-point lead and an Adam Saad goal just before fulltime left Essendon four points short and ruing not just the Ward decision but their own inability to protect such a big lead.

“It’s not a free kick … he certainly acted up,” Jonathan Brown said on Fox Footy.

“Normally when a player acts it up, the free kick doesn’t get paid. But you’ve got to give credit Callan Ward. He went back, he steeled himself and it was a big goal.”

Sydney’s Tom Papley was fined $500 on Friday for staging but Brown said Ward didn’t have a reputation for doing the same.

“He (Ward) hasn’t got Papley form – and I think the Papley form was the reason he copped the fine,” he said.

Former St Kilda star Nick Riewoldt added: “It wasn’t Tom Papley mayo, you didn’t lather your sandwich in it. There was just a nice little spread of mayo.”

There were plenty of moments the Bombers will regret as they remain stuck in 10th place, two wins behind seventh placed GWS. Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti has won many a game for Essendon off his own boot during his career.

He didn’t lose the game for the Bombers but he could have practically sewn up what would have been a vital Essendon win.

Callan Ward and Essendon’s Shaun McKernan collide. Picture: Getty Images

As the Giants clawed back the deficit inch by inch, McDondald-Tipungwuti marked the ball all by himself in the Bombers’ forward 50 and instead of going back and slotting what would have been a momentum-halting goal he instead kicked it to Shaun McKernan who missed.

With that nail in the coffin avoided, the Giants came back from the dead and claimed a stirring four-point comeback victory that no one could have predicted after a yawn-fest of a first quarter. Collingwood president Eddie McGuire said earlier this week all the things he hated about soccer — diving and cheap shots — were creeping into AFL football. The Bombers and GWS players did their best to replicate a world game scoreline in the first quarter. But if it was 2-2 after 20 minutes in a soccer game it would be a thrilling game, the first quarter at Metricon wast the complete opposite. Both sides looked like taking no risks at all, the Bombers were extremely slow when it came to moving the ball.

Callan Ward celebrates after kicking the goal that sealed victory for the Giants against Essendon. Picture: Michael Klein

The four behinds was the lowest opening quarter for a VFL/AFL game since Geelong faced Footscray in Round 1 1965, luckily for the viewers and the small crowd at Metricon both teams took the handbrake off in the second.

The second quarter started with a bang when Giants skipper Stephen Coniglio goaled almost immediately.

But any thoughts the Giants would stroll through the rest of the match were quickly dispelled as the Bombers reeled off six in a row to blow GWS away in the second.

Returning from a suspension Kyle Langford kicked two, former GWS player Dylan Shiel booted one from 55m while up forward, where he wants to play, Conor McKenna impressively finished with his left as the Bombers got their handball to kick ratio to 1:1 and tore the Giants apart.

When Sam Draper kicked his first AFL goal early on in the third it looked like the game was done.

But GWS’s star power came to the fore as they battered the Bombers from then on.

A quick Jeremy Cameron goal to start the fourth quarter gave them the start they needed, and when Ward kicked their fourth straight with just minutes to go the Giants had snatched it.