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<\/p>\nSpeaking of words. There were none on the banner that the Giants ran through before the match. It was left blank, reflecting their newfound approach to derby week: no sledging, no media games, no funny buggers, just footy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t need to be winning any verbal battles,\u201d coach Adam Kingsley said. \u201cWe need to be winning the physical battle out in the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Giants run through their banner during the round 20 AFL match against the Sydney Swans.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n
But they weren\u2019t in the first half – and so Kingsley had plenty of words for his players at half-time, which probably made Greene\u2019s chat for Papley sound like child\u2019s play.<\/p>\n
Kingsley delivered what some Giants types have described as one of the biggest sprays they\u2019d ever seen in the game, singling out the team\u2019s underachievers in ruthless and confronting style.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, just reminders around the way that we want to play and asking certain players to lift their output, really,\u201d Kingsley said.<\/p>\n
It worked.<\/p>\n
The Giants booted 12 of the next 13 goals to ruthlessly and brutally kill off the contest, as well as their rivals\u2019 season. They restricted the Swans to only one goal after half-time, and that was in the third minute of the second quarter.<\/p>\n
Tsunamis don\u2019t get much more orange than that.<\/p>\n
Finn Callaghan provided the spark, shaking off James Jordon\u2019s hard tag and bouncing in the first goal of the third quarter from inside the centre square – but there were at least three and possibly more aesthetically pleasing goals to follow, particularly those late in the term from Harry Himmelberg, Lachie Ash and Jake Stringer, which they landed from increasingly ludicrous locations.<\/p>\n
It was like watching a highlight reel from an entire season, condensed into about five minutes.<\/p>\n
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Giants head coach Adam Kingsley.Credit: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like almost everything our forwards touched and turned to gold \u2026 but I think that\u2019s the capacity that we have,\u201d Kingsley said. \u201cOur guys know that we have that. We just need to deliver it a little more than what we have, and I think we\u2019re building towards that.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the end, they won by 44 points, 15.12 (102) to 8.10 (58) – a 79-point turnaround from Sydney\u2019s biggest lead early in the second quarter. It was their first derby victory after five consecutive losses to the Swans.<\/p>\n
Cox had warned his players throughout the week about the Giants\u2019 ability to score quickly, and how important it was that they acted fast to stop them. They failed miserably. They had no answers. But when GWS plays like that, what team would?<\/p>\n
The loss of Hayden McLean (concussion) in essentially the first play of the match in an accidental collision with Giants defenders Sam Taylor and Jack Buckley, and then Joel Hamling (hamstring) after half-time, robbed them of two of their bookends, disrupting their structure.<\/p>\n
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The early incident involving Isaac Heeney and Toby Greene.Credit: Fox Footy<\/p>\n
But Cox wasn\u2019t having any excuses.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still had a really good footy team,\u201d he said. \u201cWe played the footy we did in the first half with the same team. The disappointing part was the second half and the way we played.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Swans\u2019 remote finals hopes are now done for \u2013 if not yet mathematically, then certainly realistically, thought Cox still wants his players to have an honest \u201cthrow at the stumps\u201d in the final weeks of the season. \u201cOne thing we need to do is to make sure that we can build as much as we possibly can towards the back end for pre-season and for next year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Giants, on the other hand, can dream big. A top-four finish is still possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we play our way \u2026 we\u2019re a pretty good team, I think,\u201d Kingsley said.<\/p>\n