Round 11 (Sir Doug Nicholls Round)
GWS v Brisbane
12.30pm, Sunday 24 May 2026
Engie Stadium
This was indeed an extraordinary game as will be revealed in this review. A history making day in the annals of Australian football.
There is no more emotionally confusing experience in the AFL right now than being a loyal GWS Giants supporter walking into ENGIE Stadium ahead of a clash with the reigning premiers. Giants fans arrive carrying equal parts hope, dread and mild gastrointestinal distress because absolutely nobody including the coaching staff, opposition analysts or possibly the players themselves have the faintest clue which version of the orange tsunami will turn up.
Will it be the slick, brutal contested-ball machine capable of dismantling anyone in the competition? Or the baffling mob that can go from premiership smokey to Auskick whiteboard demonstration in the space of 20 minutes? The performance in the west last week demanded a response.
Meanwhile, Brisbane arrived with their own sense of urgency after a few unexpected hiccups this season including last week’s savage loss to the Cats. The terrifying part for supporters is that this is exactly the sort of game where GWS could either produce a spine-tingling four-quarter masterclass or trail by 47 points midway through the second quarter. And with the late exclusion of Lachie Whitfield with hamstring “awareness” things did not look that good for the Giants.
The opening quarter was an entertaining, high scoring affair despite the slippery conditions and an apparent plumbing emergency. Within 30 seconds, commentator Kelly Underwood managed to call the ball going to Lachie Whitfield despite the fact Lachie Whitfield was ruled out before the opening bounce immediately setting the tone for an afternoon where absolutely nobody appeared fully across proceedings. To add to the theatre apparently one of the sprinklers near the wing exploded after copping some mysterious damage. Players struggled to hold their feet. Jack Buckley resumed after a week’s absence yet alas his hamstring could not hold up and was ruled out of the game prior to half time adding to the Giants injury woes.
Meanwhile, the umpiring department made amongst others a baffling infringement against Jake Riccardi involving Cam Rayner that left players, coaches, commentators and several nearby ibis birds utterly confused. Somehow amid the chaos both sides forgot defence pressure was part of the sport, with the GWS Giants booting five goals to the Brisbane Lions four in a frantic, high-scoring quarter to take a six-point lead into the first break.
Fair dinkum, the umpires might need to spend the week doing a few bicep curls and shoulder presses at training because their attempts to throw the ball up at stoppages barely reached chest height. Instead of majestic centre bounces soaring into the heavens, several looked like exhausted underarm tosses at a family barbecue leaving the rucks bending over each other in confused slow motion.
Despite the comedy at the stoppages, GWS Giants found plenty of drive through Kieren Briggs, the ever-reliable Stephen Coniglio and a dominant Oliver, who was everywhere with 12 kicks and 8 handballs in a commanding first-half display. The Brisbane Lions ball movement at times looked frighteningly slick as they sliced through the corridor, but the Giants continued to scrap, pressure and counterpunch in what was becoming a tough, dour affair.
With the Giants leading 9.5 (59) to 8.5 (53) at the main break the contest remained delicately poised, though Giants supporters everywhere would know that comfort and this football club rarely appear in the same sentence. Little did they know what was to come.
I have watched football for decades mud heaps, suburban battlers, dynasties, drought breakers and premiership juggernauts but what the GWS Giants produced in that third quarter against the Brisbane Lions was beyond football. It was a footballing hallucination. A full-scale orange avalanche of skill, brutality and precision that left an accomplished reigning premier completely shellshocked.
Fourteen goals to nil. Let that sink in.
An all-time VFL/AFL record quarter built not on cheap junk-time possession but on savage pressure, manic overlap running, fearless corridor ball movement and a level of attacking dare that bordered on reckless genius. Every stoppage became a Giants clearance, every turnover became a sprint through the middle, and every forward entry looked destined to end with arms raised and the crowd losing its collective mind. The Lions one of the competition’s benchmark sides, simply could not breathe. They were swarmed, hunted and dismantled by a side that suddenly played as though possessed by every great football team of the modern era rolled into one.
Kieren Briggs monstered the stoppages, Stephen Coniglio rolled back the years with contested-ball ferocity, and Oliver continued his coming-of-age performance like a man touched by the football gods. But this was bigger than individuals. This was collective mayhem executed with breathtaking precision. The Giants attacked from everywhere half-back chains, corridor handball waves, repeat forward-half pressure, daring kicks through the middle that in lesser moments would have coaches reaching for defibrillators. Instead, every risk came off. Every bounce sat up. Every tackle stuck. ENGIE Stadium transformed from anxious tension to full-blown disbelief as supporters looked at each other wondering whether they were witnessing the greatest quarter ever played by their football club or perhaps by anybody.
Even seasoned football watchers struggled to comprehend the destruction unfolding before them. It wasn’t merely dominance. It was football played at a speed and violence that felt almost unfair, a once-in-a-generation quarter where everything aligned perfectly and the Giants briefly looked not just unbeatable, but untouchable.
GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY 6.2 9.5 23.7 26.10 (166)
BRISBANE 5.2 8.5 8.8 13.10 (88)
GOALS
Greater Western Sydney: Greene 5, Stringer 5, Cadman 3, Gruzewski 3, Daniels 2, Ricciardi 2, Gothard 2, Brown 2, Bedford, Callaghan
Brisbane: Rayner 3, Lohmann 3, Cameron 2, McKenna 2, McLachlan, Neale, Morris
BEST (Richard’s best)
Greater Western Sydney: Oliver, Briggs, Ash, Callaghan, Laverde, Stringer
Brisbane: Wilmott, Neale, McCluggage
INJURIES
Greater Western Sydney: Buckley (hamstring)
Brisbane: Nil
LATE CHANGES
Greater Western Sydney: Lachie Whitfield (hamstring) replaced in selected side by Harry Oliver
Brisbane: Nil
Crowd: TBC at Engie Stadium
Malarkey Votes
3 – C. Oliver (GWS)
2 – K. Briggs (GWS)
1 – L. Ash (GWS)
Read other Round 11 match reports HERE
Read more from Richard Griffiths HERE
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