When Matt Buntine kicked truly from 45m late in the third quarter against the Adelaide Crows at Spotless Stadium on Saturday, his GIANTS teammates ran from everywhere to congratulate him.
It wasn’t so much that he’d put his side 40 points up in the shadows of the three-quarter time to all but ensure them a third consecutive win but more that he’d ended a long wait to get onto the goal sheet.
A foundation GWS player chosen with pick No.5 in the 2011 AFL National Draft and playing his 19th AFL game, Buntine had lived through the club’s first 73 games and seen his teammates kick 755 goals before he got himself a six-pointer.
His teammates knew, and ensured his first goal was appropriately recognised.
Buntine, 21, was the 37th player to play for the GIANTS and the 57th player to kick a goal for the club.
It was a goal that got him off the “most games to first goal” list headed by Adam Kennedy. He went 34 games for the club before his first major.
The longest ‘live’ streak for games for the club without a goal belongs to vice-captain Heath Shaw, who on Saturday played his 26th game for the GIANTS.
Luke Power, now in his third year as a full time assistant coach, played 20 games without a goal in the club’s first season in 2012 to sit third on this list behind Kennedy and Shaw and ahead of Buntine.
Other ‘live’ streaks for GIANTS players are Tim Golds (6), Dylan Addison (5) and Tom Downie (1).
Of 67 players to have represented the GIANTS, only 10 have not kicked a goal – Shaw, Power, Golds, Addison and Downie, plus Stephen Gilham (15 games), Jack Hombsch (9), Jono O’Rourke (9), Kurt Aylett (1) and Bret Thornton (1).
Just as Buntine got something of a monkey off his back on Saturday, so too did the GIANTS themselves.
Prior to the round eight clash, the Crows had been a giant nemesis for the AFL’s 18th club.
In five meetings in 2012-13-14 the GIANTS had won just one quarter of 20 quarters against them. They had an average losing margin overall of 87 points, and their 5 per cent quarter-by-quarter win ratio was the worst among opposition clubs. And their five-game losing streak against Adelaide was their worst in the AFL.
There was no doubt the Crows were the side which at least statistically had caused the GIANTS most heartache. Until Saturday.
In taking another step up the ladder, the young GIANTS took three quarters from the Crows and only conceded the final quarter when they led by 46 points at three-quarter time and pretty much had the four premiership points locked away.
When the final siren sounded with the scoreboard showing GWS 16.12 (108) to Adelaide 12.12 (84) it meant that for the first time in club history they had not only won three games in a row for the first time but also posted back-to-back wins at Spotless Stadium for the first time.
Also, they posted a club record eight consecutive quarters won, taking in the last quarter of their round six win over Hawthorn, all four quarters in round seven against Carlton, and the first three quarters against Adelaide on Saturday.
In a pointer to the team’s dramatic improvement, it was the GIANTS’ second consecutive win against a top four opponent and their fourth in 33 games. They won one of their first 28 games against top four sides, and now have won three of their last five.
Adelaide became the GIANTS’ 10th different victim, leaving Collingwood, Essendon, Fremantle, Geelong, North Melbourne, Richmond and West Coast remain on the ‘still to beat’ list.
The GIANTS’ sixth win of 2015 equalled their entire win total of 2014.
The GIANTS’ 6.4 (40) was the biggest scorer ever posted by quarter time in club history and their seventh highest quarter score.
The match total was the GIANTS’ second-highest at Spotless Stadium.
Individually, Devon Smith had an equal career-best 10 tackles. And Adam Treloar, who had a game-high 35 possessions, continued as the only GIANTS player to have played in each of the club’s 23 games at Spotless and, with Smith and Tom Bugg, the only GIANTS to have played in each of the club’s 15 AFL wins.
