Spotless Stadium, Homebush, Sydney Australia

The records continue to tumble for the Greater Western Sydney Giants in season 2016. On Saturday, the Giants crushed a depleted and struggling Gold Coast Suns by 91 points. The other remarkable story of the game, was the incredible debut of Giants teenage midfielder Jacob Hopper. The only thing missing from Hopper’s game was a goal from his impressive stats of 32 disposals.

On the Gold Coast side of the equation, whilst not making excuses for a very lacklustre performance, the team is heavily depleted in playing personal, with thirteen players missing with injuries. At least nine players are 3-4 weeks away from playing any kind of football.

It was clear from the start the Giants were in full control of the game and never allowed the Suns to gain any traction. The Giants had posted 3 goals before Gary Abblett Jnr was able to score the Suns first goal. The Giants had plenty of use of the ball and easily lead the disposal count of 125 to 79 at the first break. Jacob Hopper had an amazing start gaining 11 disposals, with Dylan Shiel and Heath Shaw with 10. For Gold Coast, Aaron Hall, Matt Shaw and Nick Malceski were the Suns better players for the term.

Giants midfielder Jacob Hopper (with ball) had a dream AFL debut racking up 32 disposals Photo: Jodie Newell

The second term saw the Greater Western Sydney Giants continue to maintain their grip on the game. Midfielders in Dylan Shiel, Callan Ward and Stephen Coniglio were getting plenty of the ball. Jeremy Cameron capped of his teammates work booting 2 goals for the quarter. Despite the Giants dominance there were patches of playing time where the Gold Coast showed some fight, but were unable to maintain any intensity or post any scoreboard pressure. Dion Prestia started to come into the game as did Gary Ablett who was working hard around the midfield despite being closely marked by the Giants taggers. Brandon Matera kicked two goals for the term and added some form of respectability to the Suns score at half time.

Despite being heavily tagged, Gold Coast’s Gary Ablett was still able to get plenty of the ball Photo: Jodie Newell

The final two quarters of the game saw the Giants slam 13 goals to 5 and ran out comfortable winners in record breaking fashion, by 91 points. To underline just how well the Giants are playing, their previous highest winning margin was against Port Adelaide gained earlier this year. It took only four more rounds of footy to smash that record.

Giants coach Leon Cameron was obviously pleased post-game with his sides effort, but emphasized the big test for the club was coming with a month of difficult football against some of the form teams of the AFL competition in the Western Bulldogs (Home), Adelaide (Away), Geelong (Away) and Sydney (Home). Cameron said his team’s standing and ability would be determined after those fixtures.

For the Gold Coast Suns, a philosophical Rodney Eade said that despite the big loss, he thought his team’s effort was worthy of some praise considering the toll of injured players and the quality of the opposition. Eade was glowing in his summation of the Giants indicating he was of the belief they wouldn’t just make up the numbers, but would go further in the finals if they were to make it.

Jeremy Cameron had plenty to smile about on Saturday night after booting 7 goals against the Suns. Photo: Jodie Newell

The GWS Giants play the Western Bulldogs in an absolute blockbuster next Sunday afternoon at Spotless Stadium, Homebush, whilst the Gold Coast Suns play Adelaide at home next Saturday afternoon at Metricon Stadium, Carrara. The Greater Western Sydney Giants are currently third on the AFL ladder (8-2), whilst Gold Coast Suns (3-5) are positioned at 13th.

GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY       4.3    9.9    16.13    22.17 (149)
GOLD COAST                                1.0    4.0        7.1         9.4 (58) 

GOALS
Greater Western Sydney: Cameron 7, Palmer 3, Lobb 3, Kelly 2, Scully 2, Patton 2, Johnson, Steele, Wilson
Gold Coast: Grant 3, Matera 3, Lynch 2, Ablett

BEST
Greater Western Sydney: Hopper, Cameron, Shaw
Gold Coast: Hall, Prestia, Ablett

INJURIES
Greater Western Sydney: Nil
Gold Coast: Adam Saad (hamstring), Gary Ablett (concussion)

Reports: Nil

Umpires: Brett Rosebury, Robert O’Gorman, Brendan Hosking

Official crowd:  8,308 at Spotless Stadium