R.I.P. Giants

[Dry Rot]

Spotted this article on BF. Explains many things.

Please have a full box of tissues next to you to mop up all your tears.


GWS are broken in every way

GWS aren’t the first team to suffer a grand final humiliation and not play finals the next year.

Adelaide haven’t recovered from losing to Richmond by 48 points as warm favourites in 2017. Port lost to Geelong by 119 points in 2007 and didn’t finish higher than tenth in the next five years, sacking two coaches along the way. Collingwood finished 13th and 15th after Brisbane gave them a ten-goal hiding in 2003. Melbourne tumbled to 11th after Essendon did a demolition job on them in 2000.

But none of that previous AFL history should hide that the Giants have been shown up as a broken and barely functioning football club in 2020.....

https://www.theroar.com.au/2020/09/22/gws-are-broken-in-every-way/

[josie]

Thanks for post Dry Rot. And long may it continue. I think they made a mistake re-signing Coach Cameron.

[jeemak]

He hasn't missed Leon Cameron, has he?

[ratsmac]

He hasn't missed Leon Cameron, has he?

Haha no, he pretty much got him right between the eyes!

[FrediKanoute]

I'd agree with the synopsis. I think Leon though is a good coach. If anything though the easy ride is over and they are going to have to scrap a little to make things work. This will be the true test of just how good a coach he is.

[Happy Days]

I too think the Giants are stuffed long term. Cameron will be the first guy to leave that they haven't sort of wanted to and that they have no answers as to how to replace.

The article is bang on about the lack of chemistry between the group, and should serve as a reminder to be incredibly careful when toying with what we've developed in our own team, particularly in bringing in cast offs in a season of reduced list sizes.

We can underperform on field often but I've never even once thought it was owing to a lack of care between the players.

[Mofra]

There was another point missed that supports the article - the guys who aren't junior stars and top draft picks, and have to fight tooth and nail for their spot, are particularly absent from GWS.

Who are the guys that are the "feel good" stories there? Sam Reid who broke and AFL record for his 50 games, and Matt de Boer who has become the best tagger in the game after his career was almost over. Nobody "feels good" about a top 3 draft pick middling his way to 150 games under the shadow of higher profile teammates.

Richmond won a flag after 29+ years of putrid performance, and their follow up flag came with the Pickett feel-good story.
West Coast can always draw on the "us and them" east coast state rivalry, and even then it took some Dom Sheed individual brilliance to get them over the line - a guy who spent his entire career being played outside of his preferred position.

"Why not us?" led the Bulldogs to a flag, but even more telling was that of the 'back 7' only Wood was taken in the main draft (#42), with a DFA (Hamling), PSD pick (Roberts), a bunch of rookies (Boyd, Morris, JJ) and a former rookie acquired for virtually nothing (Biggs).

The Giants lack that. Their best chance of success is to bring in rookies and late picks who are only in the system by the skin of their teeth.
Their best story this year? Jake Riccardi... a mid-season rookie pick overlooked a number of times previously.

[Happy Days]

There was another point missed that supports the article - the guys who aren't junior stars and top draft picks, and have to fight tooth and nail for their spot, are particularly absent from GWS.

Who are the guys that are the "feel good" stories there? Sam Reid who broke and AFL record for his 50 games, and Matt de Boer who has become the best tagger in the game after his career was almost over. Nobody "feels good" about a top 3 draft pick middling his way to 150 games under the shadow of higher profile teammates.


I feel like they intentionally try to force these guys into the side, like Reid, Lloyd, Langdon, (to a lesser extent) De Boer, etc., when they would frankly be better off just playing all their aces.

I'm not sure if its to send a message to the rest of the group, to try and somehow endear themselves to the wider audience, or some sort of cutting their nose off marketing exercise, but playing ¬3 guys who aren't AFL standard every week is asking for it. Not only have they won probably one game of consequence ever (and lost more than a few), but they're about to really feel it with all of the guys they should have been playing in the last two years (and that they spent considerable draft capital on) about to walk.

Nothing is less intimidating than a rich kid trying to prove he's tough. They would be better off leading into their draft trust fund brat rep rather than providing themselves with adversity.

[1eyedog]

There was another point missed that supports the article - the guys who aren't junior stars and top draft picks, and have to fight tooth and nail for their spot, are particularly absent from GWS.

Who are the guys that are the "feel good" stories there? Sam Reid who broke and AFL record for his 50 games, and Matt de Boer who has become the best tagger in the game after his career was almost over. Nobody "feels good" about a top 3 draft pick middling his way to 150 games under the shadow of higher profile teammates.

Richmond won a flag after 29+ years of putrid performance, and their follow up flag came with the Pickett feel-good story.
West Coast can always draw on the "us and them" east coast state rivalry, and even then it took some Dom Sheed individual brilliance to get them over the line - a guy who spent his entire career being played outside of his preferred position.

"Why not us?" led the Bulldogs to a flag, but even more telling was that of the 'back 7' only Wood was taken in the main draft (#42), with a DFA (Hamling), PSD pick (Roberts), a bunch of rookies (Boyd, Morris, JJ) and a former rookie acquired for virtually nothing (Biggs).

The Giants lack that. Their best chance of success is to bring in rookies and late picks who are only in the system by the skin of their teeth.
Their best story this year? Jake Riccardi... a mid-season rookie pick overlooked a number of times previously.

Very astute observation Mof. They're marketing team has really missed the boat on this, especially when you are trying to gain a foothold and appeal to a new demographic.
They need to inject some culture, develop a motto they can endear their fans to rather than this arrogant expectation because that simply isn't working. They need a feel good story, a player, a reason to play or even a charismatic new coach.

We dodged a bullet with Cameron. Loved him as a player and while he is very clinical with good attention to detail he's media awkward and nothing suggests to me that he can coach.

[jeemak]

I love the fact that it was us, the team that benefited least from GWS coming into the competition, that stymied their best chance of winning a flag.

Winning our flag was always going to be unbelievably satisfying, but getting to help break GWS as a major part of the journey just makes it so much better.

[ledge]

The old saying . A champion team will always a beat a team of champions.
You can have all the stars in the world but if they don’t Gel as a team it ain’t working.
To me they never seemed to be a true team outfit.