Round 6 – GWS v Brisbane: Goals galore for Charlie!

 

 

 

 

I remember back in the VFL days going to an away match, even going as far as Geelong. It’s certainly different today, as you catch a plane at Tulla and no one from the family comes out to see you off to wherever. You go out onto the tarmac and you cannot smell the kero nowadays as the fuelling connections are so much better. After the game I caught an Uber which is probably spelt without a capital ‘u’.

 

However, some things stay the same. Great players win matches. Great players drag their teams and team mates over the line and at Manaka one Lions player won the game for his team. Now two Giants midfielders got a million disposals, but forwards win games, while mid fielders accumulate possessions.

 

Charlie won this game by himself. He will get three Brownlow votes and who cares about the rest because they didn’t matter.

 

But let’s start at the beginning when they had an Anzac Day ceremony which was respectfully observed. Now I have always been of the opinion that we should have this ceremony only on the games on Anzac day but being the sort of person who has a full copy of Purnell’s history of the First World War I am one out in this crowd.

 

Then the obligatory screeching announcer came on to inform us of meaningless trivia. Following this I discovered this ground has instituted a new appalling audio assault: sirens that lasted until the umpire lifted the ball into the air. What a relief it was when the meaningless noise stopped and the game started.

 

All day the Giants mid fielders had the better of their opponents. Coniglio and Kelly got around twenty more disposals than their Brisbane opponents. However, particularly early on, the Brisbane defence stood firm with Rich playing a marvellous game, winning lots of the ball and being a physical presence while the Giants seemed to concede a goal every time the Lions went forward. Jack Payne, playing deep in defence, played his best game and it appears the Lions have found their replacement for Adams and Gardner.

 

The game settled into a pattern with the Lions getting out to a considerable lead and the Giants closing the gap but the one thing they could not do was to stop Charlie scoring any time he wanted. He took contested marks, got on sizzling leads and dashed out the back of packs. A masterclass was given. Toby Greene, the Giants forward superstar, some might say a poor man’s Charlie, had the better of Starcevich but only kicked a couple of goals. He can be far more damaging.

 

This was an important game for both sides. The Giants are now looking at a Sydney team on the rebound and a loss means they are looking at next year’s draft while Brisbane continue to recover from their terrible first round loss to Port. They have several underperforming players. Hipwood was poor again getting one goal from a handball receive and the other from a lucky mark where Joe Daniher made a totally unrealistic attempt to mark, crashing two Giants defenders out of the contest, so allowing Hipwood a simple chest mark. McCarthy was quiet, Kiddy Coleman has not regained last year’s form and Gunston is as slow as a wet week.

 

Brisbane have Freo at home next week and a win their cements their place in the eight but they have some work to do for a top four spot.

 

 

GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY   2.2    6.4    10.7   13.9 (87)
BRISBANE                                           5.3    9.5    14.5   16.12 (108)

 

GOALS
Greater Western Sydney: Daniels 4, O’Halloran 3, Hogan 2, Greene 2, Cadman, Himmelberg
Brisbane: Cameron 7, Gunston 2, Hipwood 2, McCarthy, Ashcroft, Rayner, Daniher, Bailey

 

BEST
Greater Western Sydney: Kelly, Coniglio, Peatling, Greene, Taylor
Brisbane: Cameron, McInerney, Payne, Rich, Dunkley

 

INJURIES
Greater Western Sydney: Sam Taylor (right hamstring), Adam Kennedy (right knee)
Brisbane: Nil

 

LATE CHANGES
Greater Western Sydney: Daniel Lloyd (calf) replaced in the selected side by Ryan Angwin
Brisbane: Nil

 

SUBSTITUTES
Greater Western Sydney: Adam Kennedy (replaced Sam Taylor in the third quarter)
Brisbane: Jarryd Lyons (replaced Darragh Joyce in the final quarter)

 

 

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