A silver lining to Jeremy Cameron's stint on the sidelines through suspension emerged on Sunday, with the GIANTS forward crediting his extra goal kicking practice as the reason for his excellent accuracy.
Cameron's four-game ban for crunching Brisbane Lions midfielder Rhys Mathieson in a NAB Challenge game has been costly for the GIANTS, who lost two close games in his absence.
But he returned in fine form against St Kilda, with five goals straight, all from set shots and in different parts of the GIANTS’ forward 50.
The bag of goals helped GWS clinch a 47-point win over St Kilda, who fell away in the final term.
Cameron said the GIANTS had put a focus on taking their chances after booting 55.56 in the first month of the season, and that his time out had given him more chance to refine his goalkicking technique.
"That's one of the things we've spoken about as a club, and in particular as a forward line group, that we need to kick straight. We're not quite hitting our KPI in that area," Cameron told AFL.com.au.
"Even last week against Port Adelaide we kicked a lot of goals but we kicked a lot of points too.
"I've had lot more time to practice my goal kicking. I've done quite a bit and it's a bit lonely being out there doing it, because the other boys were trying to recover and rest up and I was out there doing extras.
"It's something that I always practice anyway and I love to be able to kick straight."
Cameron said he expected to fatigue early against the Saints given his lack of match fitness, but that the club's conditioning staff had put him through a rigorous training block to ensure his fitness was at the right levels once he returned.
But he admitted it had been a difficult period missing the first four weeks of the home and away season for the bump on Mathieson, which broke the young Lion's cheekbone.
"The hardest part was actually watching games. I went to three of the four games and just watching games and sitting in the crowd was probably the toughest part," he said.
"It hurt me the most, because you can't be out there helping, particularly in our losses. It was quite tough, but the boys played well the last few weeks and our forwards are coming together."
Cameron set up his day against the Saints with two goals in the first term, two in the second and his fifth came in the final quarter.
He had only 10 disposals but was effective and composed, and dangerous throughout.
The 23-year-old forward said getting his hands on the ball early gave him some confidence.
"That's what I was worried about the most, not finding the footy for the first quarter and then thinking about it too much," he said.
"But I was lucky enough to get a couple of handballs and sneak into the play early and that took the monkey off my back."
GIANTS coach Leon Cameron said his star forward's return was important for factors beyond his bag of goals.
"He finds a way to hit the scoreboard. We had a real focus on making sure they could get any easy uncontested marks out of their back end, and we feel as if we did that really well and Jeremy played a part in that," Cameron said.
"His energy, his enthusiasm, his speed, his agility no doubt disturbs opposition backs, and I thought he worked particularly hard today."
The GIANTS take on the three-time reigning premiers Hawthorn in their first game at Spotless Stadium for the year on Saturday April 30 at 4.35pm. Family passes start from just $48 - Click here to buy your tickets now.
