It is often said of an emerging football side that away wins are a key measuring stick of performance. Victories away from the comforts of home against the odds and against the elements.

On this basis, GIANTS coach Leon Cameron would have slept very soundly on Saturday night.

Not only had his side had beat Carlton by 78 points at Etihad Stadium to re-write the club record books but they’d claimed another GIANT slice of interstate respectability.

It was their third consecutive win at Docklands after they’d started 0-6 there. And it was their fourth consecutive win in Victoria after they’d begun 0-13 in the competition heartland.

They had a club record 40 scoring shots in posting a club record score of 19.21 (135) and a club record winning margin of 78 points.

Significantly, they had a club record 80 entries to their forward 50m zone which is the most by any team in the League this year. It was 55 per cent up on the competition season average of 51.6.

They finished a massive +48 in the inside 50 count after holding Carlton to just 32 entries. Another club record in a key statistical area.

And now, 73 games into their short history, they have more wins away from Spotless Stadium (8) than in Sydney (6).

It is all part of a GIANTS travel story that has continued its upward spiral this year after a dramatic turn in rounds 21-23 last year, when they beat Melbourne at the MCG and the Western Bulldogs at Etihad to close out their third AFL campaign.

Prior to then, in 44 games away from Spotless Stadium, the League’s newest team had won just twice. They’d out-scored their opposition in 33 of 172 quarters, averaged 65.8 points to the opposition’s 125.5 points, and topped 100 points three times while their collective opposition did so 37 times. They averaged 18.3 scoring shots to the opposition’s 33.0, and had more scoring shots than their opposition four times.

Since then, in just eight games away from Sydney, they’ve won six times. They’ve out-scored the opposition in 19 of 32 quarters, averaged 97.3 points per game to the opposition’s 77.3 points, and topped 100 points four times while conceding just three 100-point scores. They’ve averaged 27.9 scoring shots to the opposition’s 22.9, and had more scoring shots five times.

It was significant on Saturday, as the GIANTS led at every change for the third time and won each quarter for the second time, that the vast majority of noteworthy statistical highs were team highs.

The GIANTS’ +26 advantage in contested possessions was an equal club best, and after finishing -300, -392 and -239 in this area in 2012-13-14 they are now +44 overall in 2015.

They took a club record 19 contested marks and were a club record plus 14 overall.

They took a club record 21 marks inside 50, and were an equal club record plus 13 overall.

The team possession count of 418 was second-highest for the club all-time behind 459 possessions against Gold Coast in Canberra in round four this year. The +73 possession differential was third-highest in club history.

The 8.5 (53) blitz in the second quarter was the GIANTS' second-highest single-quarter score all-time behind their 9.2 (56) third quarter against Melbourne in Canberra in round two.

And the 11.11 (77) second half was their second-highest score in a half all-time, behind their 13.5 (83) second half against Melbourne in Canberra in the same game.

The GIANTS’ 33-point lead at halftime was the biggest in club history. Likewise, their 61-point advantage at three-quarter-time
Individually on Saturday, Stephen Coniglio had a career-high 32 possessions, topping his previous best of 31 against Gold Coast in 2012. And Cam McCarthy had five marks inside 50. Only Jeremy Cameron, with six against Brisbane last year, has had more.

And Shane Mumford’s 47 hit-outs was third highest for the club all-time behind his own previous efforts of 60 and 55 against Melbourne and Carlton last year.

In key League standings after seven rounds, Cameron is third on the goal-kicking list with 24 behind West Coast’s Josh Kennedy (27) and Adelaide’s Eddie Betts (26) and Dylan Shiel (200) and Adam Treloar (192) are ninth and 13th respectively on a disposal list headed by St Kilda’s David Armitage (232), Fremantle’s Nat Fyfe (212) and West Coast’s Matt Priddis (211).