GIANTS Come Of Age
The 2014 season saw the GIANTS come of age in the AFL with a number of significant milestones achieved.
After only three victories across 2012 and 2013, this season saw the GIANTS record six wins and take it up to some of the competitions' best.
The year started with a bang with the GIANTS defeating their cross-town rivals the Swans for the first time.
The 32-point victory was in front of a record crowd of 17,102 at Spotless Stadium as new recruits Shane Mumford, Heath Shaw, Josh Hunt and Dylan Addison made the perfect start to their time at the GIANTS.
All four of the GIANTS wins in their short history at the stage had been in home games at Spotless Stadium or StarTrack Oval Canberra, but this record changed on June 14 in Brisbane.
With co-captain Phil Davis back in the side after a long lay off with a kidney injury, the GIANTS beat Brisbane by 45-points at the GABBA to secure their first ever away win, highest score and greatest winning margin.
A week later, another significant milestone was on the line as the GIANTS returned to Spotless Stadium to take on Carlton, aiming for back-to-back wins for the first time.
In a tense match, the GIANTS managed to hold off the fast finishing Blues to win by 8-points and claim victory in successive weeks.
With wins now secured at Spotless Stadium and at the GABBA, the GIANTS turned their attention to winning at the home of football, the MCG.
The Round 21 match against Melbourne at the MCG started terribly for the visitors with co-captains Phil Davis and Callan Ward succumbing to injury in the first half, and key forward Jon Patton joining them on the sidelines with a serious knee injury.
With only three players over the age of 22 on the field, and only one fit player on the bench, the GIANTS young stars stepped up to record a famous victory at the MCG.
The GIANTS were victorious at the MCG for the first time, winning by their greatest ever margin (64-points) and restricting the Demons to just three goals.
For the first time, the GIANTS belted out the team song in the famous MCG change rooms and singing with gusto “we will never surrender.”
With five wins for 2014, the GIANTS faced the Western Bulldogs in the final match of the season at another venue the club was yet to taste success, Etihad Stadium.
After leading for most of the day, it looked like the GIANTS were going to be overrun by the more experienced Bulldogs in the last term.
But the young GIANTS stood tall when it mattered, with Devon Smith kicking the winning goal from outside 50 with only 16 seconds left on the clock.
It was a famous victory for the GIANTS, securing their sixth win for the season and winning at Etihad Stadium for the firs time.
After the siren, Head Coach Leon Cameron called the support staff into the circle to sing the team song for the sixth and final time for 2014.
Midfielder Adam Treloar also notched up an individual milestone this season, with his 552 possessions eclipsing Toby Greene’s club record of 539 in 2012.
GIANTS players set new season records across a number of categories in 2014, including kicks (Heath Shaw - 298), handballs (Treloar – 301), hit outs (Shane Mumford - 618) and tackles (Callan Ward – 115) while Adam Tomlinson matched his total marks record from 2013 with 127.
For the third season in a row, Jeremy Cameron led the goal kicking as the 21-year old booted 29 goals in 14 games, the same number of goals he kicked in his debut season in 2012.
The GIANTS were also one of only five teams to have five players kick over 20 goals with Will Hoskin-Elliott (26), Devon Smith (26), Jon Patton (25) and Rhys Palmer (23) all having good seasons in front of goal.
It wasn’t only the number of wins that sky rocketed for the GIANTS, with their percentage also drastically improving. After 46.17% in 2012 and 50.97% in 2013, the GIANTS' percentage climbed to 76.72% this season.
Compared to 2013, the GIANTS averaged score for went up from 69 to 81 while the average score against fell from 136 to 105. After winning 19 quarters in 2013, the GIANTS won 29 quarters (with three quarters drawn) in 2014.
On top of the six wins, there were four losses by 8-points or less (against Hawthorn, Collingwood, Geelong and St Kilda).
Seven GIANTS played their 50th AFL games this season with Devon Smith, Adam Treloar, Adam Kennedy, Toby Greene, Jon Giles, Jeremy Cameron and Dylan Shiel all passing the milestone and joining Callan Ward and Tom Scully in passing the half century of games for the GIANTS.
With injuries limiting the amount of games played by a number of key GIANTS, after three years in the competiton Adam Treloar, Tomas Bugg and Devon Smith are the only players to have played in all nine of the GIANTS victory.