GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY 5.3 Â 9.6 Â 11.10 Â 19.12 (126)Â ST KILDA 3.1 Â 6.3 Â 9.6 Â 12.7 (79)
Goals: Greater Western Sydney: J Cameron 5 S Johnson 4 T Greene 4 C Ward D Smith J Patton J Steele L Whitfield Z Williams. St Kilda: N Riewoldt 4 J Bruce 2 S Savage 2 J Newnes J Sinclair L Dunstan P McCartin.
BEST: Greater Western Sydney: Shaw, Greene, Coniglio, Scully, Williams, Cameron, Griffen. St Kilda: Riewoldt, Steven, Ross, Montagna, Dempster, Armitage, Savage.
Umpires: Shane McInerney, David Harris, Craig Fleer.
Official Crowd: 21,052 at Etihad Stadium.
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Toby Greene has helped inspire the Giants to a convincing win over the Saints.
When the coach's summation of proceedings kicks off with "sloppy", labels ball use as a worst-ever butchering, laments a lack of intensity and urgency and says blame should be shared by the many who were content to sit back and let someone else do the work, clearly it hasn't been a day to remember.
That St Kilda was within 10 points of GWS closing on three-quarter time on Sunday was both a defiance of every indication that they should have been much further behind, and a credit to their remarkable captain Nick Riewoldt. In the moments before the last change Riewoldt hurt his ankle, and the Giants kicked six unanswered goals to put the game to bed.
GWS were clear winners in both columns of the possession count, but the reams of statistics that tell the story of a modern game weren't needed to deduce who was travelling better for much of the afternoon. Significantly, the Giants were cleaner when it counted.
"Too many blokes not turning up to play," defender Tom Lee said after emerging from a lengthy post-mortem in which coach Alan Richardson made his displeasure clear. "We were really up for this game, we just didn't bring the Saints pressure, didn't bring our contested possession.
"It's tough watching from the back line and missing kicks inside 50, but that's been our issue all year - we're good from the back half but when we get the ball ahead of centre we struggle to hit targets inside 50."
In the first quarter this fundamental flaw reached comical proportions as the Saints struggled to get their hands on the ball then couldn't keep it when they did. David Armitage missed Jack Newnes by foot inside 50 which rewarded Steve Johnson for staying forward of the play, Luke Dunstan threw away what would have been his team's first centre clearance by handballing into a teammate's back, and a handful of Saints picked out Heath Shaw as if he was one of their own.
This latter occurrence would play out with frustrating regularity in a pleasant Sunday afternoon for the former Magpie.
Riewoldt, playing on the dockside wing, was getting hands to the ball but not holding his marks. The Giants punished their opponent's sloppiness as swiftly as they transferred the ball from end to end, with Jeremy Cameron's first kick of a delayed season a clinical execution of a tricky set shot and a window on what was come.
He finished with five, four of them to half-time despite Lee's best efforts. "He's a very tricky customer, got a lot of leg speed, tries to get out the back a lot and does it very well," Lee said.Â
"I thought once Sean Dempster went to him he handled him a lot better, he only kicked one in the second half from a kick out of a stoppage. I'll learn from that. Hopefully I can get a job on another big forward in the next couple of weeks."
For all they did wrong and the sense that GWS would surely pull away, the locals somehow clung to their coat tails and stayed close enough to make it interesting. After a dormant 15 minutes of a third quarter that resembled circle work the Saints made their move, driven by the inspirational form of their captain.
Newnes got one over the back before Riewoldt kicked two in a row, one the product of his endless running, the other a floating mark that threatened to lift a roof that was closed to a beautiful autumn afternoon.
Having willed his team within 10 points Riewoldt presented again on the wing and drove the Saints forward but immediately hobbled to the bench and spent the last break being treated in the rooms. The competitor in him was unbowed, and from the Saints' first meaningful foray forward of the last quarter he edged out Joel Patfull and took an astonishing chest mark.
The result was his fourth goal, but the game was by then gone. He was trumped immediately by Cameron's fifth at the other end. It was that kind of "anything you can do" day.
"He's incredible," Lee said of Riewoldt. "You're not going to see many footballers go from full forward to the wing when they're 33, 34. Hopefully the boys will get up to his level next week."
Melbourne awaits, while GWS will try to get up to the level of the very best when they host Hawthorn. Indisputably they are on the rise, and in Toby Greene on Sunday had a player who set up attacks and got on the end of them too, matched Riewoldt's four, should have had a fifth on the siren, and added 10 inside 50s and 31 possessions as a measure of his workrate.
Steven Johnson kicked three, two in the last-quarter avalanche, and somehow seems to have become an even more eccentric footballer in his twilight second coming. Facing the Hawks will energise him all the more.
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