{"id":72029,"date":"2025-08-16T05:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T05:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/72029\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T05:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T05:58:07","slug":"afl-giants-haul-sinks-suns-in-finals-shaping-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/72029\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL: Giant’s haul sinks Suns in finals-shaping victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

GWS have turned to an unlikely goal source to all but secure their AFL <\/a>finals berth and ensure Gold Coast’s remains firmly on ice.<\/p>\n

Harry Rowston had just one goal in 15 games before Saturday, when he booted four for the Giants in a 17.9 (111) to 11.10 (76) win at People First Stadium.<\/p>\n

Victory would have likely meant an end to the Suns’ 15-year wait for a finals campaign.<\/p>\n

And they looked likely after stalling the Giants’ fast start in the second term.<\/p>\n

But with the Giants chasing their own finals-clinching victory, it was the visitors who tore clear behind supreme pressure and devastatingly accurate set-shot kicking.<\/p>\n

Harry Rowston had just one goal in 15 games before Saturday, when he booted four for the Giants\u00a0Russell Freeman\/AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Rowston’s haul, Max Gruzewski’s three majors and three other multiple goal-kickers ensured the Giants weren’t exposed by the absence of injured spearheads Jesse Hogan and Jake Stringer.<\/p>\n

The win was the Giants’ sixth straight against their expansion rivals and 15th from their past 16 encounters.<\/p>\n

It almost certainly locks in their finals berth — the Giants’ third straight under Adam Kingsley — and keeps their top-four hopes alive.<\/p>\n

The Suns’ September plans remain in pencil. They likely still need at least one win from their final-round double-header — against Port Adelaide and Essendon — to play in their first postseason since their 2011 admission.<\/p>\n

The Suns had tidied up defensively, matched the Giants’ pressure and clawed their way back from a 20-point deficit to trail by just four when Ben Ainsworth chipped through his set shot.<\/p>\n

But it all swung after a remonstrating Ben Long gave away a 50m penalty in the goal square for remonstrating over a free kick.<\/p>\n

The ball popped out the back at the other end and Darcy Jones ran into an open goal.<\/p>\n

Aaron Cadman won a free kick minutes later and the Giants had their third in the final four minutes of the half when 21-year-old Rowston marked and goaled after the siren.<\/p>\n

The margin, suddenly out to 22, stretched further with Rowston’s fourth to begin the third term.<\/p>\n

Ben King’s first kick of the game — midway through the third term — was pure and briefly breathed some life into the Suns.<\/p>\n

But again the Giants ran away from the bounce and replied through Gruzewski.<\/p>\n

Goals to Jake Ricciardi and Toby Bedford, awarded a free kick when officials felt Alex Davies was taking on a tackle, all but sealed the result with time left in the third term.<\/p>\n

Finn Callaghan led the Giants’ midfield, while Suns star Matt Rowell was well held.<\/p>\n

The lead swelled to 45 points and shaped as a potentially damaging percentage blow to the Suns, before they kicked three late goals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GWS have turned to an unlikely goal source to all but secure their AFL finals berth and ensure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-72029","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\/72029","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=72029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}