A frustrating season comes to a end

For the first time in five years the GIANTS won’t be playing off in the finals. The club is the only one to have won at least one finals match in the last four years and of course played off in last year’s Grand Final, but a stop-start season, up-and-down season is now officially over after the 52-point loss to the Saints. The GIANTS have been slow starters all season and that was again an issue against St Kilda, albeit in a different way: the team won plenty of the ball and used it well early, but missed too many opportunities to score and put the Saints under real pressure. The GIANTS’ kicked 1.5 to 3.3 in the first quarter, and the scoreline was 3.8 to 5.5 at half-time, a tally that didn’t include three shots that missed everything. From there the Saints took over, a 29-point lead at three-quarter-time leaving the GIANTS with too much to do, and they didn’t let in the final quarter: it was a lacklustre finish to a tough, challenging season.

Cogs’ return

It’s been a challenging time for our skipper, but Stephen Coniglio came back into the side and made an energetic start, his 10 possessions the most of any player on the ground in the opening quarter. It got harder from there for everyone but Coniglio continued to chip away in the midfield and racked up 23 possessions for the night. There has been plenty for Coniglio to deal with in his first year as captain, and he will no doubt be better for that wide array of experiences.

Toby’s goal

The season at least ended with one special Toby moment in front of goal. He kicked a second-quarter-goal that involved so many things – his positioning in the forward 50 as Nick Haynes kicked to Jake Riccardi at the top of the goal square, his reading of the ball as it flew off hands, his speed in getting it from hand to foot in an instant, and his ability to steer his snap through as he was being pushed off balance by a St Kilda defender. The goal was the GIANTS’ third for the game and got the team back to within three points, but the Saints were quick to respond and that ended up being as close as the GIANTS were able to get.

The kids

All but six players on the GIANTS’ list have had a taste of senior footy this season, and a bunch of youngsters got another opportunity against a team that’s going to play off in the finals. Tom Green got his hands on the ball in the midfield again, and Jake Riccardi grabbed some good marks and kicked a goal that got the GIANTS moving in the second term. Isaac Cumming’s promising start to 2020 was interrupted by a hamstring injury, but the coaches got another look at him down back after Matt de Boer's late withdrawl. He took some nice marks playing down back alongside Connor Idun and Jack Buckley, who both had a heap of work to do. Jye Caldwell, Lachie Ash, Bobby Hill, Xavier O’Halloran and Jackson Hately are others to have shown a bit at different times this year, while mature-age recruit Tom Hutchesson injured a hamstring in his debut game.

Whitfield 150

He was pick one in the 2012 draft, he has signed on to be a GIANT for life and now Lachie Whitfield is a life member of the club. The game against the Saints was Whitfield’s 150th for the GIANTS, making him the fourth GIANT to join the club this year after teammates Toby Greene and Heath Shaw, as well as coach Leon Cameron. Whitfield has been one of the best-performed GIANTS this year and his relentless running, work rate and effort was there again: he finished with 27 possessions, taking 13 marks for the night.

Farewell Lenny and Brad

 

Every end-of-season brings change and the GIANTS will come back for pre-season training with some new voices to listen to. Lenny Hayes and Brad Miller have played an enormous part in the GIANTS' last four years of finals as assistant coaches, and both have decided to move out of football and experience other parts of life. Their players will miss them, and so will the club. The group that comes back for pre-season will have a different look too, with some veterans to make decisions on whether to go on again, the club working hard to keep other players, Aidan Corr already departing as a free agent and list sizes likely to change.