Giants aim to put the brakes on hot Dusty

GWS is one game from the Grand Final, but to reach it the Giants need to pull off the toughest job in footy — nullify Dustin Martin.

If Richmond’s superstar midfielder gets off the chain in tomorrow’s preliminary final at the MCG, like he did two weeks ago against Geelong, the Giants can start preparing for “mad Monday”.

But stopping Martin in his current run of form would be near impossible for Leon Cameron’s men.

Blunting his effect is the more feasible option.

Giants co-captain Callan Ward says they will pay attention to Martin and make him a targeted player, but the Giants will back themselves to win the midfield battle.

“Our mids versus their mids — we’re confident we can get the job done,” Ward said.

“Usually you have a target player, not every week, but the target player is worked on by a group. Obviously Martin getting off the chain is the one playing really good footy, but we’re pretty confident in the structures we’ve got and the balance we’ve got around stoppages. At stoppages we have structures in place to help us with those sort of players.

“Everyone is talking about Dusty being their only threat but I think they’ve got a great midfield. [Trent] Cotchin plays really good footy, you’ve got [Dion] Prestia as well.”

If Cameron does opt for an old-fashioned tagging job on Martin, Steve Coniglio looks the man to do it. But that tactic looks unlikely tomorrow.

Last week Sydney was knocked out of the finals race by a rampant Patrick Dangerfield and the Geelong midfielder will almost certainly be presenting the Brownlow Medal to Martin on Monday night.

Ward would not be surprised if Richmond coach Damien Hardwick used a similar tactic to that of Geelong last week against the Swans and threw his midfield gun forward.

The other opponent the Giants will have to deal with is the Tiger Army, which will dominate the grandstands of the MCG to a scale the game has probably never seen.

Richmond is expected to have more than 90,000 supporters, while GWS will have fewer than 3000.

“I’ve heard a lot about the yellow and black tsunami,” Ward said. “We’re trying to build our own hype.”