- Nov 23, 2015
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Firstly, congratulations to Callan Ward on 300 AFL games - 240 of those coming in orange & charcoal. Inaugural co-captain, inaugural B&F winner, hard nut, leader-by-actions, husband, father, good guy & Giants player.
Congratulations also to Sam Taylor on achieving 100 games, after significant adversity to become the best key defender in the league at the moment.
Now put all that emotion aside. This round features 4 games that pit teams 1 to 4 on the ladder against teams 5 to 8. Of 3 games so far this weekend, only the Swans have won - to consolidate top spot - while two higher-ranked teams have stumbled against lower-ranked team (Cats losing to Port, Melbourne to Carlton). We are the last of those games, up against Essendon. Put aside the memories of last year's late season demolition of the Bombers - that team isn't this year's team. This year's team is harder, led superbly in the contest by Zach Merrett and Darcy Parish. They went and bought Ben McKay to strengthen their defence, and with Jake Stringer firing and Peter Wright back from suspension and doing OK, they have improved in all aspects of their game since last year. This game - especially at their home ground - is a real test for where the Giants are at.
That said, they are vulnerable. Their biggest wins have been against the Hawks and the misfiring Bulldogs. They've had narrow wins over Saints, West Coast and Adelaide. Two weeks ago they drew with Collingwood, but with the Pies being an enigma this season, I'm not sure what that says! Port embarrassed them with a huge win, while Sydney ran them around for a big win as well. The Swans' blueprint is what we will be looking to replicate (though not allowing as many points from them) with our ability to score from turnovers and D50 with waves of runners. If we turn this into a stoppage battle, then we'll be in trouble. That said, we do need to at least halve the midfield contest - hopefully with Cogs back, and maybe Tom Green turning out we can do that - otherwise we won't be able to execute our gameplan.
As I said, a real test for us. We don't want to drop two on the trot, and winning this would just give us that mini-break from the bunched field of teams jostling in positions 4 to 10, and keep us top 3 for another week. Hopefully Tom Green is 100%, and hopefully we've got our mojo back under the roof at Marvel to execute our running gameplan.
Let's win this, Giants!
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