The Greater Western Sydney GIANTS have been dealt their first defeat by the Gold Coast Suns at Metricon Stadium, who out-shone the GIANTS by 97 points today.
With nine key GIANTS players unavailable for selection, GWS turned to its young academy players for their first trip to the Gold Coast. Unfortunately the more experienced Suns proved too strong for the young GIANTS throughout the day.
The Suns came out with all guns blazing, dominating majority of the play and the scoreboard but the GIANTS responded early with Nathan Wilson putting the first score on the board for the GIANTS.
In what was a physical, fast-paced clash, it was a costly defeat for the GIANTS loosing another promising player, Josh Growden who was stretchered off with a broken leg half way through the second quarter.
Young GIANT Ben Reid said that loosing another valuable player to an injury was a huge disappointment for the side.
“It’s certainly not something you want to see (a team-mate breaking his leg) but it’s just something that’s apart of the game. We took something out of it knowing Josh Growden and Kurt Aylett have season-ending injuries but hopefully we don’t get any more.”
The GIANTS pushed on without two of their talented players in Growden and Simon Tunnbridge, whilst Sam Darley and academy player David Cummins matched the physicality of the Suns, applying effective pressure around the ground.
Reid played up forward, kicking two goals for the GIANTS and says his individual game was reasonably good but he is still learning.
“I didn’t finish off as well as I started. I should have kicked a couple of goals that I missed.”
“Izzy hit me up a couple of times and Ben Casley and that’s something I have been working on, so hopefully I will continue to improve.”
Israel Folau made an impact up forward kicking one goal and assisted in setting up goals, and later moving to the backline where he applied crucial defensive pressure against a more bulked-up Suns side.
GIANT Jonathon Giles took some impressive grabs and displayed his versatility contributing and performing well in both the ruck and up forward.
Reid said that although the scoreboard wasn’t so forgiving, Choco (Mark Williams) was pleased with how the boys played in the final term, which will give the team some confidence leading up to next weeks clash against Eastlake.
“Choco was pretty happy with how we finished off in the last quarter. We didn’t get beaten by more than a hundred points so the game didn’t get as blown out as the Gold Coast would have expected. That was a positive for us that we will take from the game leading into next week against Eastlake.”
“Hopefully we will finish off the home and away season well. We might play Eastlake two games in a row so hopefully we have a win next week and then we will have a positive attitude heading into the finals.”
GWS GIANTS:
7.10.52
Gold Coast SUNS:
22.17.149
GIANTS goal kickers:
Ben Reid 2
Adam Campbell 2
Nathan Wilson
Israel Folau
Andrew Phillips
Bests:
Giles
Cummins
Darley
Folau
