GIANTS coach Leon Cameron believes Jeremy Cameron has been unfairly judged as a result of his breakout season as a teenager back in 2013.
The star forward kicked 62 goals that year to make the NAB AFL All Australian side and win the GIANTS' best and fairest in just his second season, and despite leading the GIANTS' goalkicking in each of the club's seven seasons in the competition, he's bettered that tally just once since, when he booted 63 goals in 2015.
At times Cameron is a mercurial forward who looks unstoppable, and he showed that in kicking 7.5 from 30 possessions in the GIANTS' 49 point thrashing of Richmond on Saturday.
But he also has concentration lapses and can fade in an out of games badly, so often cops his share of criticism from the media.
After his side's win over the Tigers, the GIANTS coach lauded his namesake.
"I think he gets harshly dealt with sometimes (by the media)," he said.
"When he got suspended last year he was winning our best and fairest, and the year before he was doing the same thing.
"Because of the standards he set as an 18 or 19-year-old when he kicked 60-odd goals, we think he's going to kick 60 and 70 and 80 and 100 (goals each year after that), and it just doesn't happen.
"The stakes lift when you become a good player and there's more pressure on you and I think he's handled it really well.
"He's a very, very good player, to kick seven in a game is pretty phenomenal."
While the Tigers struggled to contain Cameron with gun tall defenders Alex Rance (knee) and Dylan Grimes (suspended) missing, they also had no answer for another Jeremy.
Usually a defender, Jeremy Finlayson kicked a career-best five majors to be the perfect partner for Cameron inside the GIANTS' forward 50.
"He looks dangerous (up there), he's got some attributes that we really like when he plays ahead of the footy," Leon Cameron said.
"He gives us the flexibility to play three talls at times, but equally we can shift him back.
"His first three games have been really positive.
"When he arrived at our footy club as a really late pick from our academy we took our time with him, and to his credit he's worked really hard on his game."
