Nine days ago, the GIANTS copped a 10-goal hiding at the hands of the Western Bulldogs.
Now, 11 days out from their Elimination Final at GIANTS Stadium against the Dogs, the GIANTS are confident they can reverse the result.
Rejuvenated by a scintillating 72-point win over Gold Coast in the final round of the home and away season, GIANTS Head Coach Leon Cameron is preparing his charges for a big challenge against one of the competition’s in-form sides.
“Their scoring has gone through the roof the last month or so,” Cameron said.
“We all know that they’re moving the ball from one end of the ground to the other as quickly as any team in the competition and that makes for a dangerous team to defend.
“You think you might have them and then one will get through and before you know it they’ve got six or seven forwards; they’re not relying on a particular one.
“Probably earlier in the year it might have been Naughton a lot more than what it is now, but they’ve got Dale, Naughton, Dixon, Lloyd, McLean is back in form, there’s so many players that they’ve got to roll through their forward line and in saying that so have we.
“We feel as though we moved the ball a little bit better on the weekend and we needed a little bit of confidence back into our footy team because we lost for the last couple of weeks.
“I think it’s going to be a cracking game; it’ll be a game that’s up and down, and as quick as we’ve probably seen in a long time.”
Cameron’s prediction of a fast moving and potentially high scoring clash at GIANTS Stadium casts minds back to the classic finals encounter between the two sides in 2016.
The Bulldogs got the better of the GIANTS by six points in a Preliminary Final that many consider one of the best of all time.
Despite that game sparking a rivalry of sorts between the two sides, GIANTS co-captain Phil Davis doesn’t believe the 2016 game serves as any added motivation for the upcoming Elimination Final.
“It is a long time ago; I don’t think there’s any particular drive from that,” he said.
“I think we’re very clear that our own hunger is to be successful, no doubt 2016 we were close to a Grand Final, played in a Prelim the next year as well and I must admit it doesn’t really come into my thoughts whatsoever.
“We’ve missed out in the last three finals series so we’re very hungry and the fact that it’s the dogs is just a bit of a side story.”
Davis said he and his teammates are just focussed on turning their fortunes around against the Bulldogs after their disappointing outing in round 22.
“We understand that how we played two weeks ago won’t cut the mustard; we’re excited by the opportunity,” Davis said.
“It’s the last game in Sydney for the year out there at GIANTS Stadium, which adds another exciting aspect to it too.
“We’re very excited that the opportunity has come our way again, the fact that it’s the Bulldogs is somewhat relevant in terms of the excitement.
“But they’re a good side, they’re in good form, but we’re more excited about taking care of our side of the business and put in a far better performance than two weeks ago.”
