{"id":22201,"date":"2025-07-25T22:55:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T22:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/22201\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T22:55:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T22:55:07","slug":"afl-toby-greene-defends-overweight-jibe-at-tom-papley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/22201\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL: Toby Greene defends ‘overweight’ jibe at Tom Papley"},"content":{"rendered":"

A textbook spray and a classic taunt were all that was needed to power GWS to a comeback win over Sydney.<\/p>\n

Hunting a top-four spot, Giants coach Adam Kingsley had let it rip at halftime after the Swans had slammed through six straight goals to set up a 28-point lead at Engie Stadium.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/p>\n

His words had an immediate effect.<\/p>\n

The Giants returned serve with eight straight goals – nine in total – in the third quarter to set up a 44-point victory.<\/p>\n

“It was a good one. It was direct,” skipper Toby Greene said of the spray.<\/p>\n

“We deserved it, though. We were pretty ordinary in the first half.<\/p>\n

“Their (Sydney’s) work rate and contest were miles ahead of where we needed to be.”<\/p>\n

GWS move to fifth (13-6) with their sixth consecutive win ahead of the weekend’s clashes, while Sydney languish in 10th (9-10).<\/p>\n

Greene had also lit the fuse at halftime, calling Swans livewire Papley “overweight” in a mid-game interview with Fox Footy.<\/p>\n

Papley had made a point of celebrating his first major on return from a hamstring by making a beeline to Greene in the second quarter.<\/p>\n

“Nah, it’s always a good bit of fun,” Greene said with a grin.<\/p>\n

Kingsley, who described his spray as delivering “reminders”, doesn’t expect Greene to be sanctioned for the halftime comment.<\/p>\n

It comes after Brisbane veteran Dayne Zorko received a $3000 fine for his foul-mouth tirade towards the officials bench last week.<\/p>\n

Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley was also fined $20,000 last year for goading Hawthorn players.<\/p>\n

“I’d be pretty disappointed if he got fined,” Kingsley said.<\/p>\n

“They’re (the players) trying to put each other off, and they’re doing it all within the rules, of course.<\/p>\n

“Winners are grinners, and if you’re not, you move on.”<\/p>\n

Greene’s halftime antics come after a quiet week — uncharacteristically devoid of banter, at least from the Giants — between the cross-city rivals.<\/p>\n

“We don’t need to be winning any verbal battles. We need to be winning the physical battle out in the field,” Kingsley said.<\/p>\n

“In the past, we’ve had a bit of back and forth in the media stuff, but we don’t really need that.”<\/p>\n

Left to mull over the end of their finals hopes, Sydney counterpart Dean Cox wouldn’t be drawn on Greene’s jibe to Papley.<\/p>\n

“I don’t really listen to other players during half-time interviews. There’s always a bit of cheek,” Cox said.<\/p>\n

“People, when they speak in the media, generally are really calculated to opposition players.<\/p>\n

“Some players push the boundaries a little bit – Toby’s probably one of those.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A textbook spray and a classic taunt were all that was needed to power GWS to a comeback…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-22201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}