Unofficial Preview 2nd Elimination Final 2023 - St Kilda v GWS Giants, 3.20 pm 9 September, MCG

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Giant Strides

Giant Strides

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I'll put this up as a holding thread for discussion until next week when a proper pre-game thread can be created. Also happy for admin chat - finals tickets etc.

GREATER Western Sydney has booked a place in September, with the Western Bulldogs missing the finals. The Giants needed a win over Carlton in the last game of the home and away season and they got the job done with a 32-point win on Sunday night. GWS will be back in Melbourne in the first week of the finals to face St Kilda.

St Kilda's match against Greater Western Sydney at the MCG at 3.20pm AEST will be the first of Saturday's two finals, before Brisbane takes on Port Adelaide at the Gabba from 7.25pm AEST.

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www.theroar.com.au

Six Points: Meet your new flag favourites, the finals sleeping Giants, and why Sheezel still shouldn't win Rising Star

It's finals time, baby! The last round of the 2023 home-and-away season might not have been as thrilling as 2022's finale, but there was…
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1. Sleeping Giants​

Every year, one team heads into September outside the top four, but with talk raging about how they might be the team to buck the trend and make a run towards a premiership anyway.

Sunday night’s result at Marvel Stadium doesn’t change the fact that that team is still Carlton, who will welcome back Patrick Cripps and remove the self-preservation mode that kicked in midway through the third quarter of their eight-sealing loss to GWS. But the Giants themselves are a proper threat. Having seen off the Blues and all but booked their September spot by early in the last quarter, they had no designs on playing it safe: they continued to surge with irresistible football, in the process pinching sixth spot briefly off St Kilda, who would surely have been preparing for a home final after watching Sydney lose to Melbourne. That they couldn’t get it done and let through a few late goals to give up that home final will sting, but it’s far from the end of the world: if two weeks ago, you’d offered the Giants a finals berth against the team widely regarded as the weakest in the eight they’d have shaken your hand off.

Structurally, I don’t think it’s been talked about enough just how superb the Giants’ list is. For all the talk of list culls and hemorrhaging talent in recent years, they actually don’t lack for anything.Down back, even without arguably the best defender in the league in Sam Taylor, they were miserly, with Jack Buckley putting the clamps on Charlie Curnow after a hot start and Connor Idun’s star growing by the week. From Lachie Ash’s rebound to Harry Perryman’s toughness and Lachie Whitfield’s electric running, there is a perfect mix of both attack and defence. Harry Himmelberg’s intercept marking has also been vital since a mid-season move back into defence.

There’s toughness in midfield – Tom Green is a contested beast and clearance machine and Callan Ward, at 33 years old, might actually be having a career-best season as a reborn inside mid – and class on the outside, with Josh Kelly as smooth-moving as ever and Stephen Coniglio back to his best after really fizzling during Leon Cameron’s final years as coach. The discovery of Kieren Briggs as a genuinely elite ruckman mid-season has been a huge bonus, and it’s not a coincidence that his inclusion in the team perfectly mirrors their surge.

Up forward, Jesse Hogan is a monstrous focal point, who while beaten by Jacob Weitering was always able to force a contest on Sunday, and Jake Riccardi an agile and athletic second tall who fills that void perfectly. Lachie Keeffe as a forward ruck is as honest as the day is long, even if he’s not exactly an A-Grader, but all he needs to do is bring the ball to ground.

That’s where the Giants’ greatest strength probably lies. Toby Greene’s magnificence is well known, and it was he who turned the game in the second quarter against the Blues with a run of goals to give the Giants an ascendancy they seldom relinquished from there. But in Brent Daniels and Toby Bedford, they also have two of the best pressure forwards in the league, whose tackling pressure and ever-present danger when the ball hits the ground make rebounding for opposition defences hazardous.

There’s a compelling case Bedford has been the recruit of the year; if Moneyball existed in the AFL, then getting a guy typecast as a sub out of a strong side in Melbourne that didn’t know how to use his speed and ferocity is about as good as it would get.

Adam Kingsley has received plenty of deserved acclaim for lifting the Giants off the canvas after a poor 2022 – I had them in the bottom four pre-season – but I wonder if he actually had more to work with than we first thought. Personally, I definitely underrated their list, especially with Whitfield and Coniglio playing, if not career-best football, then close to it.

Where the Giants finish is immaterial – the Saints bring pressure by the bucketload, so you can bank on that match being the most ferocious of the first week of finals. Win that, and it’ll have to be Brisbane at the Gabba or Port Adelaide in Adelaide; difficult tasks, to be sure, but certainly not beyond a side that has been masterful on the road for a number of weeks.
 

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Giant Strides said:
in the process pinching sixth spot briefly off St Kilda,
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I didn't realise how close we got until we let in the last few goals, then ended up quite frustrated - I would've loved a home final!
 
Do we have any indication of how serious Sam Taylor’s injury is? Hopefully it was just tightness and they chose not to risk him.
 
Adam Giant said:
Do we have any indication of how serious Sam Taylor’s injury is? Hopefully it was just tightness and they chose not to risk him.
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In Kingsley's post-game he said that Sam felt something happen during the previous game, but tried to run it out. He reported it after the game and his hammy was scanned and deemed a low-grade tear. It is "touch and go" for the Elim final. I doubt they would risk him unless it somehow healed.
 
BarryAglett said:
In Kingsley's post-game he said that Sam felt something happen during the previous game, but tried to run it out. He reported it after the game and his hammy was scanned and deemed a low-grade tear. It is "touch and go" for the Elim final. I doubt they would risk him unless it somehow healed.
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That's about the best possible scenario.

Was it in last week's injury report?
 

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Saints will be spewing to play at MCG. They have only played 2 games this year at the G (for a 1-1 record) and 14 games at Marvel (for a 9-5 record). We have just played 1 game in MCG (a thrashing by Collingwood) and 2 at Marvel (loss to Essendon and the win against Carlton).
 
PaythePerryman said:
Saints at the MCG...so not their home ground...interesting choice.
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Finals are always at the MCG (unless there's four Vic finals in a weekend). MCGbias. ;)
 
how the hell did we make the finals this year !!! that WC loss would have hurt so much... thankfully we did enough to scrape in and you need to be in it to win it.

Confident we beat Saints - the extra week's rest will do wonders for us - and i have this strange feeling that we can go on a run in September.

we are the underdogs - that makes us very dangerous - Port or Brisbane away does not scare me

i know im way ahead of myself here - but the chance of the Pies in a prelim again..... oh man that's mouth watering - just give us a chance to drink Eddie's tears again please
 
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Orange Agent said:
Anyone know the ticket info? Imagine they won't be that hard to get. Only email I got is the one from last night.
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Said there will be an email today with details. Purchase on Wednesday, members with priority access 10am-2pm before on sale to the public.

You'd think MCG won't fill up for Saints-GWS, so should be easily able to access tickets.

I'll be there with 3 out of 4 Giants members in our household (the 4th has the work, unfortunately).
 
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