The GIANTS will kickstart their 2025 Smithy’s VFL season this weekend as they host Williamstown in Blacktown on Saturday morning.
After having the bye in last weekend’s opening round, the GIANTS will now begin their 2025 campaign as they host the Seagulls at Blacktown International Sportspark.
Ahead of his side’s season-opener, we sat down with GIANTS VFL head coach Wayne Cripps to get his thoughts on the upcoming campaign.
VFL PROGRAM FOCUS FOR 2025:
“Nothing changes for us in terms of our focus is trying to get our players AFL-ready,” Cripps said.
“We’ve invested heavily in the [AFL] Draft again and so it’s about getting those first-year players up to speed with the system and their role and then those second, third and fourth-year players are at the stage now where we want to get them AFL-ready.
“Not only do we want to develop players in their primary position, but we want to develop them in secondary roles which give them every opportunity of playing [AFL footy].”
THOUGHTS ON THE VFL LIST:
“We kept some really important players and ones we really wanted to keep, in [Marc] Sheather, [Harper] Montgomery, [Billy McGee] Galimberti and [Ryan] Hebron. They’re going to be four key pillars for us this year and they’ve all had really strong pre-seasons.
“They’ll be even better off this year, especially Sheather, Montgomery, and Galimberti as it’s now their second year in the system so they’re going to be much better off.
“Then obviously with the Albury VFL Hub we’ve been lucky enough to find some real talent there and they’re guys who play in a really strong league and they’re good young players who are really driven to play VFL footy.
“In terms of depth, in my time here, this is the most depth we’ve had on our VFL list.”
PRACTICE MATCH TAKEAWAYS:
“For us, we’ve got AFL train-ons, our Sydney VFL-listed, and our Albury VFL-listed players, so it’s been about trying to build that connection between those players and we’ve been able to get some really good game time into most of our list.
“All the Albury-listed players have played and only a couple of our Sydney VFL-listed players haven’t played, so the majority have had heaps of exposure to our system, and it was at a really high level.
“We won three of the four games so it shows we are playing to a really good standard, but there’s still a lot of work to be done.”
A FUN ENVIRONMENT AND THE ADDITION OF A NEW COACH:
“We are fortunate enough that we have such a young group with our AFL group and our VFL group that everyone is pretty much a sponge and just wants to learn and get better.
“When you’re surrounded by those people it’s always good fun which makes it a really easy job to do.
“I think the addition of Trent Dennis-Lane into the AFL program [as a development coach and VFL line coach] has really strengthened the VFL program even more. He’s a really strong coach that has built really strong connections with players and staff straight away.
“He’s got a great footy brain and he’s going to be a great resource for us.”
AFL-LISTED PLAYER TO WATCH: JOSAIA DELANA
“Obviously he’s come thought the [GIANTS] Academy, we saw him a bit in the VFL last year where he was sort of running around with not a lot of idea about our system, but it’s been a huge benefit for him having a whole AFL pre-season and now knowing our system.
“He’s got some extremely sharp hands and has some great traits.
“There’s some guys that have already had some [AFL] exposure in Ollie Hannaford and Cody Angove, and they’re going to be really good players, but I think young Joey is going to be a player that’s really going to close the gap on the other draftees pretty quickly.
“He’s a great talent, he’s a hard worker, and more than anything he’s just a great kid and he has a really infectious personality.”
VFL-LISTED PLAYER TO WATCH: LOUIS MONTGOMERY
“Obviously, he’s Harper’s brother and he’s still relatively new to our system but coming from Port Adelaide, he’s already had exposure with training at the AFL level.
“He’s been through the pathway system so he’s got a lot of talent, and he’s got a great understanding of the game.
“I think once he starts to feel really comfortable with our system that we are going to see a really good VFL player.”
SEASON OPENER V WILLIAMSTOWN ON SATURDAY:
“I’m looking forward to it.
‘’Plappy’ [Williamstown coach Justin Plapp] is a great coach and he obviously values contest and defence and you always know what you’re going to get with one of his sides.
“They’re coming off a loss last week so they’re going to come out firing and I have no doubt our boys are going to come ready to play and hopefully get the four points.
“We’ve just got to try and match them in the contest and play with speed. They’ll probably come into the game knowing we’re going to want to play with speed and they’ll try and take that away from us. So, if we can try and play with speed as much as we can, but we can match them in the contest, then things should go our way.”
GIANTS 2025 VFL LIST:
- Ryan Hebron (captain)
- Marc Sheather
- Billy McGee Galimberti
- Harper Montgomery
- Mitchell Szybkowski
- Louie Montgomery
- James Lugsdin
- Izaac Hughes
- Hugo Birks
- Matt Harms
- Will Shaw
- Tom McCaffrey
- Mackenzie Allen
- Riley Hamilton
- Perry Lewis-Smith
- Sam McMeeken
- Hunter Pickett
- Declan Fitzgerald
- Luke Skrivanic
- Taine Moraschi
- Khy Gibbs
- Mitchell Blow
Liam McCarthy (Albury Hub)
Nick Irvine (Albury Hub)
Noah Bradshaw (Albury Hub)
Jaiden Butson (Albury Hub)
Ben Coghill (Albury Hub)
Jace McQuade (Albury Hub)
The GIANTS will get their 2025 campaign under way against Williamstown at 11am on Saturday at Blacktown International Sportspark.
Click here to view the 2025 fixture for the GIANTS’ VFL side.
