GWS milestone man Lachie Whitfield pays tribute to dad in hospital after win over Geelong
A second-half burst from forward Aaron Cadman catapulted GWS to a fourth straight win, beating fellow finals contenders Geelong by 26 points in Sydney.
GWS rallied from an awful start, conceding a goal after just 20 seconds and the first 19 points, to a 17.9 (111) to 13.7 (85) win at Engie Stadium on Saturday.
It was the Giants' fourth straight win — exceeding 100 points each time — and also their fourth consecutive victory over the Cats.
But the post-game celebrations were all about Whitfield, who was honoured with a tifo while You'll Never Walk Alone — tapping into his love for EPL giants Liverpool — played over the speakers.
'That's a bit of carry-on I think,' he laughed.
'Good footy club, it's good how we celebrate our blokes in these sorts of ways — they make you feel loved.'
In an emotional post-script to finish the interview, Whitfield then revealed his father was forced to miss the occasion.
'Just want to give a shoutout to my dad, who's in hospital and wasn't able to get here as well. Thinking of you, old man,' he said.
Whitfield was among the Giants' most important with 32 disposals and 11 marks.
Geelong cut a 20-point deficit in the third quarter to seven, but Cadman turned the game after an uneventful first half in which he logged just one behind.
He kicked four goals in the third term as GWS opened up.a 25-point buffer going into the last quarter.
Cadman added two more in the fourth, displaying a strong aerial presence and accuracy from both set shots and general play.
He eclipsed his previous career best of five goals against Brisbane last month.
Jake Stringer added four goals, his best tally for the Giants, with three coming in the first half.
The Cats' early pressure forced turnovers around their attacking 50 and they punished the Giants on the scoreboard.
The shellshocked Giants worked their way into the game to trail by 13 points at the first change, then exploded out of the blocks in the second quarter.
GWS booted the first five goals of the term, dominating clearances and inside-50s to earn a 20-point lead.
Geelong rallied before halftime, kicking the last two goals to trail by just six at the major break.
The game took another twist early in the third quarter as GWS booted the first two goals to swell their advantage to 18 points.
Geelong surged to get within seven, but Cadman took over, converting a strong mark into a set-shot goal, then landed an impressive snap.
Former GWS favourite and the club's all-time leading goalkicker Jeremy Cameron had a quiet return in his first game at the ground since leaving the Giants after the 2020 season, kicking 1.2.
The Geelong spearhead and Coleman Medal leader had just four first-half touches and spent time being treated on the bench in the second quarter.
Some of Geelong's other prime movers struggled, including Patrick Dangerfield and Tom Atkins.
Shannon Neale was a strong target up forward for the Cats, kicking four goals.
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The Age
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Injury fears for superstar forward; Dogs' bite matches their bark as they rip Giants apart
Go to latest Pinned post from yesterday 1.25am Kingsley laments the Giants' worst game in his time as coach Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge has lauded his team's dominant 88-point thumping of the Giants that his counterpart Adam Kingsley conceded was their worst display in his three-year tenure. A sizzling six-goals-to-one opening quarter set up the landslide victory against a sloppy Greater Western Sydney, who lost Toby Greene, Josh Kelly and Jack Buckley from last week's comeback win over Sydney, but had plenty enough talent to perform better than they did. Making matters worse for the Giants, reigning Coleman medallist Jesse Hogan struggled with a foot injury throughout the match and is in doubt for next week's clash with North Melbourne. The Bulldogs had 37 scoring shots to GWS's 14, in a go-to-whoa thrashing that spiked their already-mighty percentage to 137.3, which trails only Adelaide's 146. Twin towers Aaron Naughton and Sam Darcy feasted with five goals apiece – after combining for 13 last week – while skipper Marcus Bontempelli (27 disposals) and Tom Liberatore (26) excelled in the midfield and ruckman Tim English starred in the ruck and helped kick-start the demolition with two first-quarter goals. '[There was] absolutely nothing to be unhappy about tonight,' Beveridge said after his 250th game in charge. 'I think we've been pretty honest [this year]. Our players keep fronting up and giving their all. We understand the criticism around not necessarily being able to eke our way further up the ladder and beat some teams above us – we've just got to own up to all of that. 'Tonight was another one that the application was there, right across the 23 players, and obviously, a terrific start, but the cold, hard facts say that we need to keep winning, so it's one down and then a handful to go.' The Dogs provisionally leapfrog Gold Coast to move into eighth spot ahead of the Suns hosting Richmond on Saturday afternoon. They end the season against Melbourne (MCG), West Coast (Marvel Stadium) and Fremantle (Marvel Stadium). Beveridge bemoaned the Dogs' inconsistent defensive effort in their narrow loss to Adelaide three weeks ago, but they poured the pressure on the Giants from the outset and had five goals off turnover by quarter-time. 'Our back six or seven have been beaten up a bit with the critique of them and the emerging players, and the evolution of that line alone,' he said. 'But, we all take ownership of that because ultimately, you need your midfield group and your forward group to contribute to your defensive system, and I think everyone stepped that up a little bit. 'There are some levers we're pulling to make sure we tighten it up a bit. Some of that's simply decision-making off-ball, and how much we value that phase of the game, and I think tonight, we were pretty good at it … to keep a pretty threatening forward line to that score [44 points], but also to limit our exposure there.' The Bulldogs improved to 2-8 against the current top eight, although both wins were over GWS, including a 32-point win in Canberra in round seven. But their record is not as bad as it reads, given six of those losses were by 16 points or fewer, and the other two were by 21 and 22. There was a seven-minute stretch in the second term when the Dogs kicked three goals and won 32 disposals without the Giants touching the Sherrin. Thirteen GWS players, including Jesse Hogan, Sam Taylor, ex-Dog Jake Stringer and Aaron Cadman, had won four disposals or fewer midway through that quarter in an insipid display not befitting a team with premiership aspirations. The Giants' percentage sunk from 118.4 pre-match to 113 after a match they lost the contested possession battle by 51 and ended a six-match winning streak. 'We got belted in the contest, plain and simple. I think maybe minus-51 in the end, and you can't really compete when you're getting belted like that,' Kingsley said. 'You're always trying [to turn things around]. Problem is, it's never one thing that's the issue while you're losing contest – it's usually a handful, if not more, and you're trying to sort of feed that into the players, and we were just off tonight. I don't know why. 'The Bulldogs are clearly playing for their season, and it just felt like we weren't, and so that's disappointing, from our perspective. 'Obviously, they were really strong, and they've been like that against us in the past, for a number of times that we've played them. They're a bit of a hump that we haven't been able to get over in the last couple of years.' Kingsley said they would 'move on quickly' from the Dogs defeat and had the chance to respond against the Kangaroos, but there is no certainty that star spearhead Hogan would play. 'Hogan's a bit sore with his foot. He couldn't really move around throughout the game,' he said. 'We thought it'd be a little bit better than that, but he got a little bit of a knock early in the game, when he tried to launch, and it sort of flared up a little bit for him. He did his best to manage that, but it was a pretty tough night for him from a pain perspective.' Toby McMullin was subbed out in the second quarter with a suspected ankle syndesmosis injury. yesterday 1.25am Kingsley laments the Giants' worst game in his time as coach Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge has lauded his team's dominant 88-point thumping of the Giants that his counterpart Adam Kingsley conceded was their worst display in his three-year tenure. 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'[There was] absolutely nothing to be unhappy about tonight,' Beveridge said after his 250th game in charge. 'I think we've been pretty honest [this year]. Our players keep fronting up and giving their all. We understand the criticism around not necessarily being able to eke our way further up the ladder and beat some teams above us – we've just got to own up to all of that. 'Tonight was another one that the application was there, right across the 23 players, and obviously, a terrific start, but the cold, hard facts say that we need to keep winning, so it's one down and then a handful to go.' The Dogs provisionally leapfrog Gold Coast to move into eighth spot ahead of the Suns hosting Richmond on Saturday afternoon. They end the season against Melbourne (MCG), West Coast (Marvel Stadium) and Fremantle (Marvel Stadium). 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'You're always trying [to turn things around]. Problem is, it's never one thing that's the issue while you're losing contest – it's usually a handful, if not more, and you're trying to sort of feed that into the players, and we were just off tonight. I don't know why. 'The Bulldogs are clearly playing for their season, and it just felt like we weren't, and so that's disappointing, from our perspective. 'Obviously, they were really strong, and they've been like that against us in the past, for a number of times that we've played them. They're a bit of a hump that we haven't been able to get over in the last couple of years.' Kingsley said they would 'move on quickly' from the Dogs defeat and had the chance to respond against the Kangaroos, but there is no certainty that star spearhead Hogan would play. 'Hogan's a bit sore with his foot. He couldn't really move around throughout the game,' he said. 'We thought it'd be a little bit better than that, but he got a little bit of a knock early in the game, when he tried to launch, and it sort of flared up a little bit for him. He did his best to manage that, but it was a pretty tough night for him from a pain perspective.' Toby McMullin was subbed out in the second quarter with a suspected ankle syndesmosis injury.
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News.com.au
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- News.com.au
Geelong cult hero Billy Brownless set for shock commentary comeback
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