The GIANTS - with eight listed players - have been defeated by the Tigers in the VFL on Saturday.

The round five clash was played at the Swinburne Centre - the Tigers’ training base - in cold and windy conditions on Saturday afternoon.

The Tigers kicked the first five goals of the match and were never headed, running out 19.9 (123) to 3.8 (26) winners.

“We never got our brand of football going,” said VFL coach Luke Kelly. 

“We saw it for about 15-minutes early in the second quarter but we didn’t capitalise. 

“When you give a team like Richmond the look we did away from the footy, it’s always going to be a tough day.

“We won the contested ball count, which we like to hang our hat on, but our basic footy fundamentals invited their pressure and their way of moving the football which led to a result like that.”

For the GIANTS, goals were kicked by Leyton Chisolm, Will Shaw and Zach Youlten with Nick Shipley leading the way in the midfield with 28 disposals and seven tackles. Kelly also liked the game of Irish convert Callum Brown who has been forced into a key position post.

“Brown defended hard all day under a lot of inside-50 entries,” Kelly said.

“Zach Sproule gave us energy when he went into the ruck and never dropped his work-rate. 

“Our mids in Conor Stone and Josh Green showed glimpses of their quality at times but ultimately we had too many beaten in their position.”

Chisolm, Joel Dunstall, Jack Driscoll and Patrick Parnell all played their first games for the GIANTS’ VFL side.

The GIANTS return home next week to take on Port Melbourne at Blacktown International Sportspark on Saturday at 12:05pm. The match will be broadcast live on Kayo Freebies.