{"id":91781,"date":"2025-08-24T06:57:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T06:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/91781\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T06:57:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T06:57:09","slug":"follow-afl-round-24-scores-results-odds-squads-and-start-time-from-marvel-stadium-in-melbourne-results-for-gws-giants-vs-st-kilda-saints-and-brisbane-lions-vs-hawthorn-hawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/91781\/","title":{"rendered":"Follow AFL round 24 scores, results, odds, squads and start time from Marvel Stadium in Melbourne. Results for GWS Giants vs St Kilda Saints and Brisbane Lions vs Hawthorn Hawks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes, it takes a moment of brilliance to win a match. Sometimes, to save a match.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, it takes two.<\/p>\n

With the game \u2013 and a home final \u2013 on the line late in Sunday\u2019s clash against St Kilda, the Giants needed something from someone to stave off the distinctly real possibility of a late raid from the visitors.<\/p>\n

Enter Toby Greene, who did what can only be described as Toby Greene things, hauling in not one, but a pair of spectacular contested marks inside the final two minutes of their pulsating 11-point win at Engie Stadium, shaving crucial seconds off the clock while also snapping the Saints\u2019 momentum.<\/p>\n

\"Toby<\/p>\n

Toby Greene took two hangers in quick succession to save the game for the Giants.Credit: Fox Footy<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019ve got to go, you\u2019ve just got to go,\u201d Greene said post-match. \u201cSometimes you hang on to them, sometimes you don\u2019t.\u201d <\/p>\n

The first was in Greater Western Sydney\u2019s forward pocket, as they held a four-point lead. He could have won the match for them, then and there, with his set shot from a difficult angle. Though he missed, he had the presence of mind to flood the corridor ahead of St Kilda\u2019s kick-in \u2013 and there he was, chopping off the Saints\u2019 long bomb into the centre square with another crucial mark, almost chopping off the head of teammate Lachie Whitfield in the process.<\/p>\n

Those moments capped off an all-round excellent display from the Giants captain, who kicked four goals from 17 disposals and set up another to lead the way against a plucky Saints outfit, in a game featuring eight lead changes across the second half.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s Toby, isn\u2019t it?\u201d coach Adam Kingsley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not many players, really, that back-to-back can not only generate another 30 seconds for you to take that off the clock … he hit the post from the boundary line. Pretty close shot. And then [to] go back and knew that they were going to attack corridor and protected it for us … absolutely brilliant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what he does, honestly. We don\u2019t want to rely on that. But it\u2019s nice when it does happen.\u201d <\/p>\n

Their September fate wasn\u2019t immediately clear on Sunday afternoon, with two more games to come that were to shape the make-up and order of the top eight, as well as Gold Coast\u2019s catch-up match against Essendon next week.<\/p>\n

\"Greene<\/p>\n

Greene leads the Giants off the field Engie Stadium after securing a home final.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

But the 15.14 (104) to 14.9 (93) victory means the Giants will almost certainly finish fifth on the ladder, and will play a home elimination final against the team that finishes eighth.<\/p>\n

Kingsley believes they are a better team today than they were 12 months ago, when the Giants entered the finals series full of promise from fourth position, but were sent packing in straight sets after defeats to Sydney and eventual premiers Brisbane.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve grown in our ability in close games to manage them. Clearly in the finals last year we didn\u2019t get it done. I feel like we\u2019re in a better space with that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our general game is in better order. I think our stoppage game is in better order. I think our attack is in better order. But it\u2019s a new season now. So who knows?\u201d <\/p>\n

The Giants could make as many as five changes for the finals, with first-choice players Jesse Hogan, Jake Stringer, Brent Daniels, Jack Buckley and Josh Kelly all a chance to return from injury after the pre-finals bye.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be an interesting match committee that\u2019ll probably last the next fortnight, around do we bring in five guys who haven\u2019t played in a couple of weeks, a couple of months?\u201d Kingsley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019ll be the discussion point. How many is enough? How many is too many? Are we making the right changes? Do we back in the guys who are already in the team? I expect to have all of those guys available. Either way, people are going to be unlucky, I think. So that\u2019s a really good position for us to be in.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sometimes, it takes a moment of brilliance to win a match. Sometimes, to save a match. Sometimes, it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-91781","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\/91781","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=91781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}