Footy world stunned by Jake Stringer act against his old club
The 31-year-old Stringer has been a polarising figure across his 223-game career with the Bulldogs, Bombers and now Giants.
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An All-Australian back in 2015 and a six-time club leading goalkicker, Stringer has also had off-field issues and left both the Dogs and Essendon on bad terms.
Facing the Bombers for the first time since ending his 123-game stint with the Melbourne club, Stringer said pre-match on Fox Footy he was 'hoping for a few boos'.
He didn't need to worry about that, with the boos raining down whenever he touched the footy against his injury-ravaged club.
Unfortunately for Essendon fans, that happened a lot, with Stringer playing a starring role as the Giants built a big lead at Marvel Stadium.
Journalist and Bombers fan Caspar McLeod tweeted pre-game: 'Jake Stringer … please take it easy on us.'
The powerfully built 192cm forward had other ideas, however, stamping his authority on the game in the second term.
GWS only took a seven-point lead into quarter-time before Stringer burst into action.
Midway through the second term, he was booed when he tried to take a mark and again when a forward entry ended up in his vicinity.
He then got his moment from a ball-up in the forward 50m, when Kieren Briggs tapped the ball to Stringer, who had an open goal ahead of him.
But he opted to handball to young teammate Max Gruzewski, who kicked the goal.
'Wow. Wow. Jake Stinger, that is awesome,' David King said on Fox Footy.
'We've seen him do this at centre bounce clearances over the last few years, but from forward 50 stoppage I'm not sure I've seen him do much of this.'
Jack Riewoldt added: 'I love this. I think it shows where Jake Stringer's mindset is, coming up against his old side.
'He gives this away to the young player Gruzewski and this shows where his mindset is at, the team player Jake Stringer is.'
King then joked: 'And in true forward fashion, he handballed it so poorly he was a chance to get it back.'
Just 10 secs of game time later, Tom Green found Stringer on the lead and he took the uncontested mark as the boos rained down again.
'The booing is the loudest we've heard Bombers fans all night,' Mark Howard said in commentary.
'Stringer gave the last one off, he's been in a rich vein of goalkicking form.
'Six-time leading goalkicker, off four last week, from 50 Stringer … Essendon cannot kick a goal and the Giants cannot miss.'
That stretched the Giants' lead to 28 points as they started to pull away.
'They get to him, they know what this means to Jake,' King said after he kicked his first.
'He's probably circled this one in the calendar, a lot of unhappy Bombers fans.
'He's just been so good to watch this guy for a long period of time, he's a 'moments' player.'
Gruzewski's goal sparked a run of four gin seven minutes to break the game open before debutant Liam McMahon finally responded with Essendon's first goal.
Dating back to last week's dreadful performance against Richmond, the Bombers had gone 92 minutes of game time between goals.
Early in the third term, Stringer intercepted a handball and threw the ball on his left foot and found Callum Brown, who missed his set shot.
The premiership player with the Dogs then pulled off a spectacular mark after a forward entry from Toby Bedford and snapped the goal for his second of the night.
'Wow, they have recruited a highlights package, there's no doubt about that the Giants,' King said.
'He's just starting to find his feet in this line up. I tell you what, this is when you want him rolling, back half of the year.'
He had three goals by three quarter-time and it's fair to say Bombers fans weren't enjoying the show and many watching on were keen to comment on the persistent booing.
'Lol who's booing Jake Stringer? He got pushed out of the club for a bag of potato chips, please,' was one comment on X.
Richmond fan Paul White tweeted: 'Bomber fans booing Jake Stringer. So on point for those in red and black.'
Jasper Chellappah offered: 'I have never seen Jake Stringer pass a goal off before, let alone running into an open goal.'
A fourth wrote: 'Why boo Jake Stringer? He didn't leave. Essendon chose to move him on. '
The Giants' X account then got in on the action.
'The crowd here really like Jake Stringer,' they tweeted.
Another fan gushed: 'I am feeling proud of Jake Stringer tonight, that play showed him being a teammate and towards the young player, and the goal for himself he deserves that, it was a great goal too. Just ignore the noise. Well done.'
It's only early in Stringer's time with the Giants, but he's made a promising start as he makes his mark away from the Melbourne footy bubble.
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