![\"Tom](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/6877f3113540bc1f2ba186676dd9d070a75f4f04.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nIn the countdown to this Marvel Stadium mis-match, only one result was really expected: a comfortable GWS victory.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s exactly what transpired. The 48-point win wasn\u2019t necessarily a convincing win for the finals-bound Giants, but they did more than enough to secure the four points.<\/p>\n
Much of the second, third and final quarters was quintessential junk-time footy, however.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tom Green of the Giants handballs against Essendon.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n
The undermanned Essendon outfit was never seriously considered a chance against the talent-laden Giants.<\/p>\n
Poor kicking at goal – at one point GWS 8.1 (49) led the Bombers 0.8 (8) – meant any outlandish Bomber hopes of victory were wiped out early.<\/p>\n
Considering that, the most disturbing number for the red and black tonight was the final crowd figure – 20,347 fans in the house.<\/p>\n
An eye-catching turn-out with a couple of days in the school holiday period to come. Importantly, on the field, the Bombers never dropped their heads.<\/p>\n
Not only did they fight out the match they effectively went goal for goal after half-time.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, they made sure there wasn\u2019t a repeat of last week against Richmond when the Dons booted only one goal after quarter-time.<\/p>\n
Essendon debutant Liam McMahon had his glorious moment(s) in the sun when he booted consecutive goals, either side of half-time.<\/p>\n
Even in defeat, there\u2019s always a moment to savour.From a Giants perspective, they were effectively on a hiding to nothing.<\/p>\n
The top four aspirants were expected to triumph by more than ten goals. Nothing short of a big win would have met expectations.<\/p>\n
Their biggest negative came when ruckman Kieren Briggs laid a heavy tackle on Bomber Sam Durham.<\/p>\n
Briggs is bound to come under AFL match review officer scrutiny at a critical stage in the club\u2019s season.<\/p>\n
Tom Green and Finn Callaghan were stand-outs for the orange army, picking up 30 and 33 touches respectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the countdown to this Marvel Stadium mis-match, only one result was really expected: a comfortable GWS victory.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-412","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\/412","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=412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}