Preview Round 15 2024 – GWS Giants vs Sydney Swans, Saturday June 22, 4.35pm AEST, Engie Stadium

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How GWS plan to shut down Swans danger man Amartey

Joel Amartey kicked nine goals against Adelaide last weekend and again looms as one of Sydney’s major threats on Saturday – especially with the Giants missing their star defender.
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How GWS plan to shut down Swans danger man Amartey

By Jonathan Drennan
June 20, 2024 — 6.20pm

The Giants will look to defenders Leek Aleer and Jack Buckley to shut down Sydney’s in-form forward Joel Amartey ahead of Saturday’s derby after losing star defender Sam Taylor to injury.

Amartey scored a career-high nine goals last Saturday against Adelaide, and the matter of how to stop him looms as a significant puzzle for the Giants coaching staff with Taylor unavailable having suffered a ruptured testicle in last Sunday’s win against Port Adelaide.

Taylor believes he suffered the injury in the third quarter, but still finished the game. The 2022 All-Australian had surgery this week and his return date is unknown by the Giants.

Defender Aleer has deputised ably for Taylor in the past and has successfully overcome his own injury difficulties, having missed most of last season with a ruptured ligament in his toe.

The 22-year-old debuted for the Giants against the Swans two years ago and is looking forward to matching up against the top team in the competition.

“I think they [the Swans] have some incredible ball winners, and they have some incredible [ball] hunters, they have players who get after it and with respect, we have that too.

“I think it will just come down to who wants it more at the end of the day, and we’re quite hungry at the moment. They’re sitting pretty at No.1 and deservedly: they’ve been playing some really good footy, but hopefully we can start knocking on that door and getting ourselves up on the ladder.”

Buckley was disappointed at his team’s previous 29-point loss to the Swans in their last meeting in round eight at a sodden SCG and will be looking to make amends for the performance at Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday.

“I think in that game they just handled the conditions a lot better than us, which is disappointing. They just smacked us in the contest,” Buckley said.

“They were tougher on that day, which was tough to review. The way they move the ball is amazing, but I mean, their defence is just as good.

“We won’t be looking at changing a whole lot in terms of what we do, we will play our way and if we can do that for four quarters, we’ll just give ourselves the best chance and just trust that, that’s enough against the best team in the comp.”

Academy product Caiden Cleary will make his AFL debut in his first senior season for the Swans after impressing as a ball-winning midfielder in the VFL.

The Swans will have to wait a little longer for their captain, Callum Mills, to return to the side as he continues to recover from calf and shoulder injuries.

Mills said that his focus is on returning to match fitness before any conversations with coach John Longmire can happen about where he could fit in the Swans’ lineup as a midfielder or a halfback.

“We haven’t spoken about that [position change] actually, we just want to get the training under my belt and we’ll reassess where the team is at and where I’m at that stage,” Mills said.
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The Giants, meanwhile, expect this Saturday afternoon's clash at Engie Stadium to become a sell-out imminently. Anything even close to that would go some way towards breaking the record for the largest home game in the club's history.
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Hopefully the weather holds and it's a dry game but I am seeing nuisance rain (couple mm) in the weather modelling for tomorrow.

It'll be cold too so best to rug up.
 
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Orange Agent said:
No mids out but Peatling back. I hope he knows why he is stuck on a revolving door because it is baffling to me. Hoping it's Leek to Amartey, Bucks to McDonald, XO to Lizard and for the midfield the only tag I'd consider is Rowbottom.
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Can't imagine XOH playing defence
 
Danny88 said:
He has played a def forward role successfully a few times

He was fantastic on Stewart against Geelong

I imagine him to lizard will be a critical matchup
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he can absolutely tag someone, just think it is unlikley he'll do it in the backline. I reckon he will continue to play the role he as been playing a combination of being on ball and being a pressure forward. He is in very good form at the moment.

Hey, I could easily be wrong, happens all the time, I just dont like to admit it !
 
Adam Giant said:
It is a bit strange. But I like the energy and attitude he brings to the team.
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it did feel like we had one too many talls down back (maybe even 2) last week.
All of Taylor, Buckley, Haynes,Aleer and Himmelberg felt too much. Especially when you include Idun who can play on talls if required.
Buckly, Aleer, Himmelberg & Idun is enough to cover the Sydney talls. Not sure who joins Whitfield and Ash as the other back.
Maybe we will rotate the likes of Peatling, Ward and Angwin through there.
 

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Peatling is pretty versatile. Initially a medium forward, converted to a medium back to get a look in and then drafted; played forward initially by GWS, but recently converted into a mid. He could be the sub, but even if he's in the 22 he's a versatile player who deserves a spot.

I wonder if they might consider throwing him into a tagging role? There are multiple Swans players we could tag ... might we have multiple taggers?
 
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Five burning questions ahead of the second Sydney derby of the AFL season

The Swans are flying without a care in the world, while the Giants would love another win to help get their season back on track. We take a closer look at Saturday’s huge clash.
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Five burning questions ahead of the second Sydney derby of the AFL season

By Vince Rugari
June 21, 2024 — 3.30pm

The biggest Sydney derby since the last one is here. It might be bigger. In fact, we’ll call it: it is bigger. The Swans are flying high on top of the AFL ladder, three games and percentage clear of the rest of the competition, while the Giants are hanging onto fifth position and trying to come back into form after winning for just the third time in their last eight outings.

It’s huge. It’s at 4.35pm on Saturday at Engie Stadium. Let’s dive in.
After the Amartey Party comes the… after party, or hangover?
It was one of the most unexpected bags in recent memory – so now it’s time to see whether Joel Amartey’s nine-goal haul was a freak one-off or a sign of things to come from him. Controversially robbed of the chance to reach double-digits by what coach John Longmire insists was a pre-planned rotation, the 24-year-old should certainly be rested enough to make another impact.

It must be some experience, going from relative obscurity to the national spotlight in one night, but that’s what a performance like the one Amartey produced against Adelaide does for a player’s profile. The biggest thing that’s been holding back Amartey – aside from his hamstring issues, which are hopefully behind him – has been a lack of consistency, and there’s no better opportunity to prove he’s come of age than to produce the goods when everyone’s watching you. Especially with what’s happened to the Giants in defence...

How do the Giants deal without Sam Taylor?
You may recall Sam Taylor’s allegations that Swans players are “smug” and “chirpy” types, which provided adequate pre-match fodder for the last derby. It didn’t go so well for him or the Giants. And sadly, he’ll be missing entirely from this derby due to a ruptured testicle. The Giants have a huge job on their hands in making up for his defensive output during Taylor’s projected two-week absence.

To make matters worse, Nick Haynes is out with a hamstring injury, which means it’ll be down to Harry Himmelberg, Jack Buckley and Leek Aleer to hold down the fort. While they’re all great defenders, they’re not as complete as Taylor. Consider the fact, too, that they’ll have to deal with a Swans forward mix that includes not only Amartey but Logan McDonald, Will Hayward, Tom Papley and Hayden McLean, while Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner and Errol Gulden all contribute goals from midfield. Only one of those players needs to get off the leash for it to hurt.

Who will ‘Snooze’ go to next?​

Toby Bedford added a new string to his bow in the Giants’ impressive 22-point win over Port Adelaide. Traditionally a small forward, he was redeployed as a tagger and helped keep Zak Butters to just 17 touches on Sunday, which is a fairly big scalp to claim in your first outing as a run-with player.

Given that success, it would be surprising if he isn’t asked to have another crack at shutting down one of Sydney’s best midfielders, and having just run through the list with you, there are some fairly daunting assignments there waiting for him.
The Swans’ ‘big three’ went ballistic in the last derby: they were the three highest possession-getters on the ground and Gulden won the Brett Kirk Medal, while the tireless James Rowbottom and recruit-of-the-year Brodie Grundy contributed 18 tackles between them, and all their forward dominance came off the back of them. Similar to the above problem, though – Bedford can maybe do a job on one of them, but not all of them...

Can the Swans avoid hitting snooze?​

And by that, we mean not Bedford (great nickname) but the proverbial snooze button. It’s difficult finding any faults in what the Swans have built but if there’s one clear weakness, it’s their poor starts. The last derby was a good example: the Giants led at quarter-time and were the better side early, only for the Swans to hit back emphatically and put a gap on ’em. It’s happened a few times since. In fact, they’ve trailed at quarter-time in each of their last four games, including the five-goal head-start they gave up to Geelong, and while they’ve been able to recover on each occasion, one of these days, it’s going to cost them. But if they fix this area, then … well, best of luck to the rest of the competition.


What will the debutants bring?​

Both teams sprung a surprise at the selection table. The Giants have axed the misfiring Aaron Cadman and named 19-year-old Max Gruzewski for his first AFL game. Gruzewski is an undersized key forward at 192cm who is coming off a rich vein of form in the VFL, where he has kicked 22 goals in 10 games. It is a big call to throw him in for a derby against the hottest side in the league, but Gruzewski was close to a debut earlier in the year when Jesse Hogan was facing a one-match suspension that was successfully overturned.

Meanwhile, the Swans have dropped Matt Roberts to their reserves and brought in Caiden Cleary, another academy product who was part of the all-conquering Allies team that went undefeated for their first under-18 national title in 2022. Cleary is a hard-running ball magnet who has been compared to Taylor Adams and Lachie Neale. So another one to throw into the mix, then, and an academy graduate to boot, which will go down well south of the border.
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Damned rain.

tv land rain GIF by [HASH=785530]#Impastor[/HASH]
 
Last edited:
Land of the Giants said:
Damned rain.
tv land rain GIF by [HASH=785530]#Impastor[/HASH]
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Models showing that this lot of heavier rain should edge north and clear up for a bit later today. Later this arvo rain should be lighter.

Models showing less than a mm this arvo for game time increasing as the arvo/ evening goes on. One model currently showing dry first half, rain returning second half.

Personally, hoping it rains itself out and we have a rain free game but I wouldn't bank on it. It'll be cold and damp at a minimum though. :(

Not sure what drainage is like at the stadium, hopefully rain drains away quickly.
 
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Simmofreo said:
You get to the game and half the stadium is empty


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app
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I think there was a concerted effort to minimise this occuring with the way they sold the game this year.

I imagine people will pull out today because of the rain but there isn't much the club can do about that.

Noticed some people selling their tickets online but the beauty of an in demand game means looks like some other fans are also after tickets.
 
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