There were points during the 2022 AFL season when the GWS Giants looked like they were disinterested.
It may have been the result of the instability surrounding the coaching role, with Leon Cameron departing halfway through the season, but that would not explain some of the insipid efforts that followed in the weeks and months after his departure.
The rock bottom for this highly-talented team came following a Round 20 drubbing at the hands of cross-town rivals, Sydney. Smashed by 73 points, interim coach, Mark McVeigh did all but throw his hands up in the air and walk away, indicating that just eight of the 23 players that suited up for the Giants actually put in on the day.
In a move that would have shaken the foundations of the AFL had a coach done this at one of the “big cubs”, McVeigh named names in his post-match press conference. No, he didn’t name those who didn’t stand up – that would have taken too long. He named those who did.
Josh Kelly, Jesse Hogan, Toby Greene, Sam Taylor, Adam Kennedy, Callan Ward, Harry Perryman, and Lachie Whitfield were the players that, according to McVeigh, gave a shit about the team on that day. I don’t know what it says about the rest of them, but your guess is as good as mine.
That leaves the following players, who puled on the orange and charcoal that day and basically had their heart questioned by the stand-in coach.
Brayden Preuss, Harry Himmelberg, James Peatling, Xavier O’Halloran, Tim Taranto, Leek Aleer, Callum Brown, Jacob Wehr, Daniel Lloyd, Jacob Hopper, Lachie Ash, Tom Green, Nick Haynes, Isaac Cumming, and Lachie Keeffe.
Quite a mixture of big and not-s-big names in that mix.
Hopper and Taranto are now gone – perhaps that Round 20 capitulation was indicative as to where they were at with their footy and where they saw themselves as part of the GWS team. They may be out the door, however, the challenge now is for Adam Kingsley to somehow get the best out of those who remain as part of the team. Do the words of McVeigh ring in their ears? Do they realise they have something to prove?
Blokes like Lachie Ash and Isaac Cumming are blue-chippers. You’d expect them to bounce back hard to establish themselves under a new coach. Tom Green has the tools to be the best contested footy winner in the game – the comparison to Clayton Oliver was made just this week. It’s not too far off the mark. The others… well, it all depends on how they receive the criticism, doesn’t it?
Looking at this GWS list, I simply cannot comprehend how they were so poor across the 2022 season. To win just six games with this abundance of high-end talent makes no sense. On paper, they have every asset you’d hope to secure in order to contend. I’ve written about how seamless their defensive transition from Phil Davis and Nick Haynes to Sam Taylor and Isaac Cumming has been. Close to flawless. They have copious amounts of midfield talent, even whilst losing players like Taranto, Hopper, and the emerging Tanner Bruhn. And up forward they have some of the best hands in the game, in Jesse Hogan, and perhaps the most talented player in the game at their disposal, in Toby Greene.
The problem is not talent.
It never has been.
This may come as difficult to read for Giants fans, but critics who have pointed fingers at the culture of the club, calling them plastic, and stating they have no soul are looking to be proven correct, should things continue on the current trajectory. It is going to take a sudden reversal of form, and more importantly, effort to have them crawling back into their holes. The back half of 2022 went a long way to giving their claims credence – this club played with no heart!
Adam Kingsley is either a glutton for punishment, or genuinely believes that he has a lot to work with at Western Sydney. He inherits a team that was, for all intents and purposes, broken in 2022. It’s going to take more than running repairs to rectify the issues that bubbled to the surface, but if he can galvanise this group, it has the potential to be so much more than was on display last season.
Am I saying they can make the finals?
Look, without backing away slowly like a snivelling coward – an art form when done properly – anything can happen in the AFL. We’ve seen teams come from the clouds to claim the flag. Even last year, Collingwood was in nobody’s top four before the season commenced, let alone being one straight kick out of the Grand Final. When things start clicking, they have a penchant of clicking quickly.
That said, whilst I expect an improvement from the Giants, that’s about all I am ready to commit to. They are such a tease – great runners, great ball winners, excellent young defenders, and just three seasons ago, they displayed something that answered so many many of the questions about this team- they displayed the type of heart and soul in the 2019 finals series that seemed to make the club seem ominous. It may have fallen apart on the last Saturday in September, but it was there; we all saw it. We all felt it.
They need to find that “mongrel” again and not be afraid to be the most hated team in the game.
Is Adam Kingsley the man to bring this team together? Can he have them playing like a champion team in his first season as coach? Or will the Giants continue to meander through their AFL existence, wasting a talent pool that other teams would kill for?
The term “make or break” is used far too commonly in footy. In year one, this is not a make-or-break season for Adam Kingsley. It could be, however, that type of season for his club.
Supporters need hope. Clubs that are building a foundation need to see an uncompromising commitment from their players each and every week. Whatever they saw from the Giants in 2022, they simply cannot be witness to that again this year.
It was the type of season that destroys faith.
2023 is the year they can restore it.
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