GWS 7.4 10.8 16.12 24.16 (160)
Gold Coast 1.2 5.4 7.8 8.10 (58)
Goals - GWS: Cameron 6, Greene 5, Johnson 3, Kelly 3, Smith 3, Lobb 2, Shiel, Reid Gold Coast: Martin 3, Wright, Witts, Kolodjashnij, Ablett, Barlow
More AFL Real Footy Videos
GWS secure victory over Gold Coast
Jeremy Cameron kicked six, Toby Greene five as GWS thrashed the Gold Coast Suns in round 2.
Best - GWS: Greene, Cameron, Kelly, Mumford, Ward, Kennedy, Wilson Gold Coast: Miller, Rosa, Martin, Kolodjashnij
Umpires: Nick Foot, Robert Findlay, Shane McInerney
![Apprenticeship complete: Toby Greene of the Giants.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170715121248im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/b/m/v/r/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvbkdw.png/1491102451851.jpg)
Crowd: 8022
VOTES GWS v Adelaide
(James Buckley)
Toby Greene (GWS) 9
Jeremy Cameron (GWS) 9
Josh Kelly (GWS) 8
Callan Ward (GWS) 8
Shane Mumford (GWS) 8
The Giants dished out a 102-point thumping of a woeful Gold Coast Suns on Saturday to recalibrate their season before coach Leon Cameron dismissed constant talk his team was the AFL premiership favourites.
Toby Greene kicked five goals in his 100th game while Jeremy Cameron went one better to collect a half dozen as the Giants quickly put to bed last weekend's round-one flogging by Adelaide in front of 8022 fans at Spotless Stadium.
![Jeremy Cameron kicked six goals for the the Giants.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170715121248im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/b/m/w/3/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvbkdw.png/1491622379268.jpg)
But Cameron was quick to swat away the premiership favourites tag that will likely stick to the club for at least one more week after their biggest ever winning margin over the Queensland expansion club.
"Internally we know that we're not up to the mark of Sydney, Geelong, Hawthorn, West Coast Eagles yet and that's just to name a few," Cameron said.
![GWS star Steve Johnson tweeted on Friday that his car had been involved in a "high speed pursuit across Sydney".](http://web.archive.org./web/20170715121248im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/b/m/v/n/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvbkdw.png/1496491848532.jpg)
"I probably should have added the Bulldogs. Every year they back up. Every year they find a way to either finish top four or play finals.
"There's no doubt that the external noise that's been floating around the competition over the last three or four months over the pre-season period has been about us and the ability to take the next step. Is that a good thing? I suppose it is a good thing if they're talking positively about our footy club.
"We've had one winning season, and that was last year. We've won one final, and lost a final.
"When you start to get that sort of credit, and it takes years to get that credit, then I think it's fair that people can start talking about your footy club about being a really, really good team.
"We're learning to get there;Â today was a good, positive step but we've got a long, long way to go."
The gulf between the AFL's two newest expansion clubs was exposed on Saturday as the Suns, who entered the league a year earlier than the Giants, were well beaten all over the ground.
Jonathon Patton was a late withdrawal for the Giants, still battling the groin injury he sustained against the Crows last weekend, and that handed Sam Reid his first AFL start for the year.
There certainly didn't appear to be a gaping hole in the Giants forward line with Greene and Cameron absolutely superb and ably assisted by Steve Johnson, Devon Smith and Josh Kelly who banged through three goals each apiece.
"Anyone that plays 100 games of AFL is a fantastic effort," Cameron said of Greene.
"He epitomises what we want to stand for as a footy club and that is you want to be able to compete. Whether Toby's playing forward, wing, on ball, you know he's always going to put his head over the footy and the finishing touches that he's added to his game in terms of what he can do when he's forward of the footy is a credit to him."
Phil Davis and Adam Tomlinson did a solid job on danger forward Tom Lynch down back while Suns stars Gary Ablett and the returning David Swallow were well below par.
After a seven-goals-to-one rout in the opening quarter, Gold Coast bounced back and kicked five straight goals either side of half-time before GWS stopped the rot and executed a second-half rampage.
"We seemed to not be bold any more, we seemed to worry about making mistakes, we went back into our shell and when you're reactive like that it just suits a team like GWS who are such a bold side," Suns coach Rodney Eade said.
"Today I think it was just a team that was more hungry than us early.
"The number of mistakes we made, they kicked 23, 24 goals;Â they kicked 16 goals from turnover, which is a horrendous amount. A lot of the errors we made were pretty basic errors, like dropped marks, just missed easy targets."
Eade said the flag favourite talk around GWS was premature.
"I think that's unfair on them, maybe it's Melbourne media doing that to maybe detract their mental state. I don't think being six or seven years in that they could be flag favourites," Eade said.
"I was sitting here 12 months ago saying how much talent they've got. They're a young group too, they've got exceptionally good players and exceptional runners and their skill level - they hardly miss a target.
"I don't believe in favourites but they'll be one of the teams there at the end of the year."
0 comments
New User? Sign up