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Analysis 2025 GWS Giants - Best 22, breakout player(s), Congrats Sam Taylor AA & Tom Green KSM

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Giant Strides said:
OK folks, this is a must read. If you don't have access to SMH, find a way behind the paywall to read the whole story. Hint: the really interesting part is not Finn Callaghan knocking back $18m & a $1m home load from Saints.

www.smh.com.au

Why this young superstar knocked back $18 million and a home loan

He signed with GWS on the eve of the season for $4.5 million over four years, which will take him to the eve of the 2030 season when he becomes a free agent.
www.smh.com.au www.smh.com.au

Finn Callaghan’s decision to knock back a fortune and back himself – and the AFL’s youngest and smallest club – was secured after coach Adam Kingsley delivered the 21-year-old a detailed picture of the club’s efforts over the off-season to complete the final piece of the premiership puzzle.

It was all about leadership. And decision-making in key moments. Kingsley and his team had already picked up some worrying signs before the Giants’ disastrous straight-sets finals exit last year and decided to invest some hard-fought soft cap gains into shifting the on-field mindset of their leadership group.

Callaghan signed with GWS on the eve of the season for $4.5 million over four years, which takes him to the eve of the 2030 season when he becomes a free agent.

The Giants’ presentation to Callaghan on the eve of the season was not about money but the program they had introduced over the late spring and summer of 2024-25. For the first time in football boss Jason McCartney’s time, the Giants employed an outsider – a leadership coach who had worked with McCartney in the past but was not well known in football circles.
Click to expand...
We have done extremely well making Kingsley head coach and for him to put together this coaching group.
 

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AFL website has an interesting article on the most unlikely journey to AFL stardom for each club


gws-giants.jpg

Jack Buckley​

Buckley started his AFL journey as part of the Sydney Academy program, but has wound up being quite the find for the club's crosstown rivals. The son of former North Melbourne player and chairman Ben, he quit the Swans aged 15 before being recruited as a forward by the Giants as a Category B rookie as a 20-year-old. Having been converted into a reliable lockdown defender, Buckley still only played 17 games across his first four years at the club before being struck down by an ACL injury. His return has been magnificent, though, with Buckley cementing his place as a reliable part of the club's defensive unit and playing 49 games across his last two seasons. Now, alongside teammate Sam Taylor, he is part of one of the best backlines in the competition. – Riley Beveridge

www.afl.com.au

Don't stop believing: Your club's best rags to riches story

Our reporters look at the current players to have had an unusual journey to the big time
www.afl.com.au www.afl.com.au
 
A nice article on Tom Green - whilst he has complete hearing loss in one ear, it has has absolutely not impacted his performance

GWS midfielder Tom Green has opened up about how a virus in his childhood left him with complete hearing loss in one ear - a condition he has had to adapt to both in his personal life and on the footy field.

Green, 24, says he was just 12 years old when he noticed something was wrong with his hearing


www.dailymail.co.uk

Footy star reveals childhood virus that robbed him of his hearing

GWS midfielder Tom Green has become one of the AFL's top midfield talents since making his debut in 2020 - and he's done it all despite suffering a serious health problem.
www.dailymail.co.uk
 
The most and least accurate goal kickers for each club, although it’s worth noting that it is not limited to the past year(s) or just the current club

gws-giants.jpg

Most accurate​

Harry Himmelberg - 161 goals from 253 shots (63.6 per cent)
Callum Brown - 44 goals from 72 shots (61.1)
Jesse Hogan - 355 goals from 593 shots (59.9)

Least accurate​

Kieren Briggs - 10 goals from 37 shots (27.0)
Lachie Ash - 7 goals from 25 shots (28.0)
Finn Callaghan - 9 goals from 32 shots (28.1)

www.afl.com.au

Your club's best goalkickers: Key Crows lead the way, Lions mids misfire

Take a look at your club's most and least accurate players in front of goal
www.afl.com.au www.afl.com.au
 
Battlepants said:
I do wonder why we don't do that.

I'm assuming it's because it would compromise our defensive set up?
Click to expand...
No one uses defenders as ruck backups precisely for this reason. You rotate seven defenders through and they generally need to know their responsibilities at a given point in time. Make one ruck and now either he can't go to the bench or you're trying to pick and rotate eight defenders, whereas using a forward doesn't make as much difference in most cases because it's your third main target. Exhaust a defender, he's now your weak spot and getting targeted every time the opposition heads inside 50.
 
Seems Lachie Ash is on track for a debut All Australian selection. Of course early days yet, but shows how good our defence is.

Jack Sinclair, Dayne Zorko, Bailey Dale, Lachie Whitfield, Dan Houston and Nick Blakey all have blazers at home, but two former first-round picks with pristine right foots are in the hunt for maiden All-Australian selection after terrorising opposition sides across the first six rounds of 2025.

Lachie Ash – the other Lachie playing off half-back for Greater Western Sydney – has rocketed out of the blocks to start the season, entrenching his status as one of the most damaging rebounding defenders in the game right now.

www.afl.com.au

Half-backs at full throttle: The highest-rated defenders of 2025 so far

The defensive playmaker role will be a hotly contested position in the 2025 All-Australian team
www.afl.com.au www.afl.com.au
 

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FoxSports analysis where they have issues with our midfield as well as Briggs, and think that Toby should go to the midfield. I too think that the loss of Peatling, Cumming and Perryman may have been underestimated.

Thus far in the campaign, apart from Tom Green — who is considered above average in player ratings — there are Giants struggling between the arcs, with Josh Kelly and Toby Bedford categorised as below average, while Finn Callaghan has been assessed as average.

“It’s now starting to show that the (James) Peatling, (Isaac) Cumming and (Harry) Perryman outs have left them thin in there, because Toby Bedford is a below-average midfielder — I know he plays a bit of a (tagging) role,” said Montagna.

“Josh Kelly’s not going well, Finn Callaghan after that electric start to the season ... he’s only been OK (since then), and Tom Green — accumulator, tough, he’s their best player, but he’s got vulnerabilities as well as a midfielder.”



www.foxsports.com.au

‘It’s not a good midfield’: Giant ‘myth’ over AFL flag fancy exposed as big names called out

‘It’s not a good midfield’: Giant ‘myth’ over AFL flag fancy exposed as big names called out
www.foxsports.com.au www.foxsports.com.au
 
MelbourneGWS said:
FoxSports analysis where they have issues with our midfield as well as Briggs, and think that Toby should go to the midfield. I too think that the loss of Peatling, Cumming and Perryman may have been underestimated.

Thus far in the campaign, apart from Tom Green — who is considered above average in player ratings — there are Giants struggling between the arcs, with Josh Kelly and Toby Bedford categorised as below average, while Finn Callaghan has been assessed as average.

“It’s now starting to show that the (James) Peatling, (Isaac) Cumming and (Harry) Perryman outs have left them thin in there, because Toby Bedford is a below-average midfielder — I know he plays a bit of a (tagging) role,” said Montagna.

“Josh Kelly’s not going well, Finn Callaghan after that electric start to the season ... he’s only been OK (since then), and Tom Green — accumulator, tough, he’s their best player, but he’s got vulnerabilities as well as a midfielder.”



www.foxsports.com.au

‘It’s not a good midfield’: Giant ‘myth’ over AFL flag fancy exposed as big names called out

‘It’s not a good midfield’: Giant ‘myth’ over AFL flag fancy exposed as big names called out
www.foxsports.com.au www.foxsports.com.au
Click to expand...
Really hope with ditch the midfield tag and push Bedford back into the forward 50. Play genuine midfielders and see what happens
 
One interesting thing I noted when watching Kinger's press conference was that he mentioned they played Stringer last week when he was suffering from illness, which he described as an "error of judgement".

I gotta say, I'm kinda losing trust in the selection committee at the moment. In previous years I've always had faith that they were making good decisions with player selection, even when it didn't align with my own ideas, I felt like they had a better knowledge and ability to pick the best available team than us fans would. But this year they've made multiple objectively bad calls and seem unable to get the team balance right.
 
3 Giants players are in the top 25 players of the year so far according to the AFL website journalists - Sam Taylor, Toby Greene and Jesse.

Every month throughout 2025, AFL.com.au will rank the best 25 players in the AFL competition, based both on recent form and a body of work across previous seasons.

Having watched the first eight rounds of the season, our panel of journalists and experts have come up with the list of 25 for May

www.afl.com.au

The 25, May edition: AFL's best players, ranked by our experts

Welcome back to 'The 25', where AFL.com.au's team of experts rank the best players in the game
www.afl.com.au www.afl.com.au
 
MelbourneGWS said:
3 Giants players are in the top 25 players of the year so far according to the AFL website journalists - Sam Taylor, Toby Greene and Jesse.

Every month throughout 2025, AFL.com.au will rank the best 25 players in the AFL competition, based both on recent form and a body of work across previous seasons.

Having watched the first eight rounds of the season, our panel of journalists and experts have come up with the list of 25 for May

www.afl.com.au

The 25, May edition: AFL's best players, ranked by our experts

Welcome back to 'The 25', where AFL.com.au's team of experts rank the best players in the game
www.afl.com.au www.afl.com.au
Click to expand...
This reeks of someone not watching our games...

... Slammer yes (though not last week), but the other two are not in form. Hogan's goal average is utterly skewed by the Saints 9 goal game. Both him and Toby have missed multiple sitters this year, and are not impacting like they did at the end of last year.
 

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domologue said:
This reeks of someone not watching our games...

... Slammer yes (though not last week), but the other two are not in form. Hogan's goal average is utterly skewed by the Saints 9 goal game. Both him and Toby have missed multiple sitters this year, and are not impacting like they did at the end of last year.
Click to expand...
It also includes past deeds
Toby has been good, small forwards are always a bit inconsistent due to their role.
 
Jesse at this stage of the season, doing even better than he was doing last year when he won the Coleman.

Jesse is going better than he did in 2024​

Jesse Hogan's career hasn't had a linear trajectory. After being taken in the 2012 mini-draft, he has reached some genuine highs and lows of footy – and life – across his three clubs; Melbourne, Fremantle, and Greater Western Sydney. But it is at the latter, during his late 20s, that he has found consistency. As last year's Coleman medallist, he put himself back on the map, and this year he is arguably tracking even better. After six games in 2024 he had kicked 21 goals. This year, thanks to hauls of nine in round four and seven on Sunday against Geelong, he has kicked 25 in the same timeframe. The only reason Hogan isn't yet leading the Coleman race once more is that he missed the three matches due to injury. At this rate, there is no reason to think that Hogan couldn't follow in Charlie Curnow's footsteps and snatch a second-consecutive Coleman, and hand his club the third in its history. - Gemma Bastiani

www.afl.com.au

Nine things we learned: This Bomber has been worth the wait

Riley Thilthorpe is lifting the Crows to the top, the Saints will be OK if they miss TDK plus more round nine lessons
www.afl.com.au www.afl.com.au
 
A massive shout out to Lachie Ash. I have been a critic of his ball use in previous seasons. Something has changed this season. He is one of our most reliable users now and is our most damaging.
He is rated the number 1 player in the afl this season so far.
Without him we would be a far lesser team.
Massive pat on the back!
 
Giant Pete said:
A massive shout out to Lachie Ash. I have been a critic of his ball use in previous seasons. Something has changed this season. He is one of our most reliable users now and is our most damaging.
He is rated the number 1 player in the afl this season so far.
Without him we would be a far lesser team.
Massive pat on the back!
Click to expand...
To be fair, his last handful of 2024 games were tracking close to this level.
 
And yet more admiration and praise for Jesse’s current form. His contract expires in 2026, so hopefully we sign Jesse up before the vultures swoop in. I doubt however, given Jesse’s issues when playing with Melbourne and Fremantle, that he will go to an AFL heartland state even though there will be significantly more $ thrown at him.

Tom Morris wonders whether Hogan may be among the most underpaid players in the competition on current output.

"He's playing like a $1.3 million player on current (form)," he said.

"Now, we know a lot of money gets reserved for potential and he's a bit older, but he has to be the most dangerous key forward in the competition at the moment, doesn't he?"

 
Article in the AFL website that shows the work of our backline so far this season

GREATER Western Sydney's backline has viewed it as a "badge of honour" that it has been able to stand up under a weekly barrage of inside 50s this season, which has only been exceeded by bottom-placed West Coast.

The Giants have been experimenting with their defence this season and looking for an edge after some key departures last year, but they have been doing so while conceding 57.8 opposition entries each week.

www.afl.com.au

'Badge of honour': How Giants are defying inside-50 avalanche

The Giants have lost the inside-50 count in all but two of their games this season, but stood firm to concede the fifth fewest points
www.afl.com.au www.afl.com.au
 

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Analysis 2025 GWS Giants - Best 22, breakout player(s), Congrats Sam Taylor AA & Tom Green KSM

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