GWS measuring up for finals

GWS is not the prettiest team to watch. Hey, the Giants don’t try to be.

When you take on Alan McConnell’s side, you’re playing a team that scraps and harasses all over the ground, suffocates the opposition’s ball control and patiently waits for the chances created by the panicked and frustrated disposal that the pressure creates.

GWS’ first ever win over Adelaide was built upon a similar style to the Round 1 win over Gold Coast, in which the Giants doggedly held its faith to the plan and won because they made fewer mistakes.

With GWS now two games clear in the Conference A top three, we can study how the Giants could stack up against their potential finals rivals.

Do the Giants have as many elite players as North Melbourne? No.

Do they score as prolifically as Fremantle? No.

Do they rebound out of defence as spectacularly as Brisbane? No.

Is there any side that values the even and committed fight at contests as much as GWS? No.

And it is that difference that the Giants have from their opposition that could prove decisive at the pointy end of the season.

Adelaide struggling with loss of experienced players

The five-point loss to the Giants strands Adelaide at fifth position in Conference A at the end of Round 6, a game and a half outside of the top three.

The 2019 premiership side has been reduced to a ghost of its afeared self as a tottering injury list has taken its toll.

Chelsea Randall and Chloe Scheer will miss the entire season, Courtney Cramey and Deni Varnhagen have played just the one match, Rhiannon Metcalfe and Erin Phillips two, and Jess Foley four.

While the likes of Anne Hatchard and Danielle Ponter have been able to step up to the plate as required, Adelaide’s bottom end has grown increasingly burdensome as inexperienced players have been rushed into the line-up as the season rolls on.

The hesitancy of the Crows’ ball movement against GWS spoke volumes about a team of inexperienced players adjusting to the sustained body-blows of injury.

Adelaide’s nerve was stretched against the Giants’ pressure and the midfielders tip-toed their disposal forward, squandering their best chances with the wind at Hisense Stadium.

Hatchard has undoubtedly been one of the most prolific and consistently elite players in 2020 but she was forced to work into the backline to win many of her 20 disposals today.

Pepa Randall: the league’s most underrated defender?

It is understandable that the wiry defender doesn’t feature in too many headlines.

In her three seasons at GWS, she has averaged just six possessions a game and uses her disposal to either extract the ball from congestion by hand or switch by foot to relieve pressure.

However, that doesn’t reduce her tremendous value to the Giants’ backline. Randall is a ruthlessly dour player: across four quarters, her opponents endure torrid attention and are given no breathing room.

Disposals are hard to earn against her and goals even harder.

In a backline ranked twelfth in the competition for points scored against (142, beaten by the Roos by just six points and Melbourne by 18), Randall’s tenacious discipline is a barometer.

She rotated off Danielle Ponter, Marijana Rajcic and Courtney Gum at Hisense Stadium and nullified all three.

Her final quarter was outstanding as she cut off the Crows’ attack in three pivotal moments as her side grimly clung to a narrow win.