GWS Giants vs Western Bulldogs
Saturday 6 July 2013, 1:45pm
Venue: Manuka Oval

Head-to-head:

Round 5, 2012: GWS Giants 9. 8. (62) defeated by Western Bulldogs 15. 14. (104), Manuka Oval
NAB Cup Round 1, 2012: GWS Giants 1. 3. 3. (30) defeated by Western Bulldogs 0. 5. 5. (35), Blacktown Olympic Park

Last time they met:

  • Matthew Boyd received three Brownlow votes, followed by Ryan Griffen (two) and Luke Power (one)
  • Ex-Bulldog Callan Ward found 18 possessions, six rebound 50s and eight tackles
  • The Bulldogs had ten more hitouts, 12 extra clearances, 21 more tackles and 25 more inside 50s
  • GWS won the first quarter by 11 points before the Bulldogs got their run on, winning the second term by 33 points and continued to build from there
  • James McDonald (seven) was the only Giant to register more than five clearances, while the Bulldogs had Boyd (nine), Mitch Wallis (seven), Daniel Cross (seven) and Ryan Griffen (six)

Recent form:

Western Bulldogs

The Bulldogs will look to take last weekend’s fourth quarter surge into this week and start the game strongly if they want a better result. While captain Matthew Boyd will be missing in action with a fractured cheekbone, the young Bulldog midfield will be led by Ryan Griffen, who has taken his leadership to another level this season.

GWS Giants

In season 2013, the winless Giants are fielding a team that in some respects is less experienced than in their inaugural season. While their young crop now has a grounding in senior football, they have lost a lot of top end experience through retirement, injuries and team selection. Their only player with 200+ games in Chad Cornes retired this week, and their eight listed players with more than 50 career games have played just seven games on average.

Key match ups and gamebreakers

  • If Jeremy Cameron can be nullified it will go a long way towards restricting GWS’ scoring power. The talented forward currently accounts for a quarter of the Giants’ goals this season (as a comparison Lance Franklin and Jarryd Roughead combined only contribute to a third of Hawthorn’s majors) and his influence will need to be curbed.
  • The competitive streak in Bulldogs first round draftees Jake Stringer, Jack Macrae and Nathan Hrovat is sure to come out when lining up against a team of similarly experienced Giants.More than half of the Giants squad in round 14 consist of first round draft picks and 17-year-old draft concessions, so there is no doubt they have talent to burn. While consistency among the group still remains a central issue, names like Callan Ward, Adam Treloar, Toby Greene and Stephen Coniglio are beginning to appear in the best players’ lists more often.
  • Will Minson will have even more reason to dominate with the build-up and emotion of his 150th career game. The ruckman’s scintillating form this season has not gone unnoticed, yet few opposition teams have been able to handle Minson’s elite tap work around the stoppages. This week shapes up to be no different. 

What we said:

“Right now our most important mission is this training session to prepare our boys for GWS on the weekend, to get them into a really good frame of mind to play some good footy. We are going to pick a team this week that is hell bent on playing better footy.”

- Western Bulldogs Senior Coach Brendan McCartney

What they said:

““"It's an opportunity for us to try and search for our first win and I've been speaking to the players just before we came into this press conference. Our NEAFL team had a really good win and a lot of our players that we dropped over the last week or two understand that if you go back and play well that we'll definitely bring some players into the side.”

- GWS Giants Senior Coach Kevin Sheedy