GWS Â Â Â Â Â Â 3.4 Â Â Â 5.9 Â Â Â 9.13 Â Â Â 12.19Â Â Â (91)
SYDNEY Â Â Â 3.3 Â Â Â 5.7 Â Â Â Â 6.10 Â Â Â Â 7.13Â Â Â (55)
GOALS - Greater Western Sydney: Â Cameron 4, Â Greene 2, Scully 2, Ward, Â Smith, Whitfield, Coniglio.
Sydney: Jack 2, Papley 2, McGlynn, Hewett, Kennedy.
BEST -Â Greater Western Sydney: Â Cameron, Whitfield, Coniglio, Kelly, Shaw, Scully, Shiel
Sydney: Franklin, Smith, Aliir, Kennedy, Hannebery
UMPIRESÂ Ryan, Â Chamberlain, Â Nicholls.
CROWDÂ 60,222 at ANZ Stadium.
Lance Franklin's first big statement when he came to Sydney in 2013Â was explaining why he chose the Swans over the Giants. He did not want to wait "four or five years" for success, he wanted it immediately. On Saturday, those words came back to bite.
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Greater Western Sydney trashed Sydney by 36 points in the club's first ever final.
Greater Western Sydney were supposed to get stagefright in their first final. The nerves would get to them, they said, and if not Sydney's flint-hard warriors would. Neither happened.
Instead, it was the Swans, the perennial finalists - but this time with a new look team -Â who were given a lesson in what football is like in September.
There is a new order in Sydney. It may still be a red and white town, but out on the field where it matters orange is the new black.
When the Swans were beaten down the road at Spotless Stadium in June, there were mitigating factors. Some will argue there were again, but for the second time in three months, the Giants comprehensively beat Sydney's established team.
In front of 60,222 fans in Sydney's biggest AFL game, the Giants outmuscled and outran their crosstown rivals. And in doing so, they landed a crushing blow to the Swans' premiership chances.
Instead of Franklin tearing apart a final, it was Jeremy Cameron, the precocious young talent from country Victoria who announced himself on the big stage with an electrifying third term.
The Giants had been working the Swans over for the best part of an hour, but it took Cameron to bring them down with a triple treat. This was no mean feat, made more special because it came in a big final against an All Australian defender in Dane Rampe.
His three goals in five minutes blew the game wide open, but it was not until midway through the last term that Tom Scully finished them off. The final margin of six goals even flattered the Swans.
Franklin earned his keep, but his best work came in the midfield and not inside 50. Sydney has grown accustomed to names like Luke Parker, Dan Hannebery and Kennedy making big plays, but it was the new breed of Stephen Coniglio, Josh Kelly and Lachie Whitfield calling the shots.
It took a while for this game to get warm, but when the tempo rose, there was no doubting we were in a final. The Swans kicked the first two goals but the Giants were calling the shots by quarter time.
Steve Johnson was winning crucial contests and landing crucial blows - none more telling than his hit on Josh Kennedy. Kurt Tippett was shaken, first by Callan Ward in a ruck contest, then from a crunching tackle by Shane Mumford who made good his pledge to smash a Swan.Â
Somehow, they both found a way to play on. Not so Mills, whose hamstring gave way on the verge of half-time.
The game itself was also not panning out the way the Swans had hoped. They were relying on tenacity and desperate acts to hold on against a Giants side whose pace was damaging.
Once play was in the open, the Swans had trouble getting within arm's reach, as seen by their 32 tackles in the first half. Perhaps it was a lack of workrate or maybe they could not keep up such was speed and precision of their ball movement.
The Giants' goal late in the second term was significant, the exclamation mark to a brutal passage of play that provided a snapshot of how the match was being played.
At Sydney's end, Tippett and Kennedy were brought down by heavy tackles. Ward, with the Giants on the counter attack, had the stuffing knocked out of him by Nick Smith. Still, the Giants ran harder, engineering a three-on-one in the goal square where Whitfield capitalised.
The half-time margin was just two points, but it would have felt more for the Swans. The question was whether the Giants had the temperament to break them.
For the first 15 minutes of the third term, it appeared they did not. First, Ryan Griffen missed, then Greene and Jacob Hopper. They did not prove costly.
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