Giants get the Greene light to snap back into action
HISTORY has repeated at Adelaide Oval, where a Toby Greene-inspired Greater Western Sydney handed the Crows a 59-point reality check on Saturday.
In the corresponding round 7 fixture last season, the struggling Giants handed Adelaide a 67-point belting that sent its season into freefall, and Leon Cameron’s men repeated the dose with a 17.11 (113) to 8.6 (54) thumping.
The surging Crows took the momentum of three wins from their past four games into the clash but were outclassed by a GWS side that had been roundly criticised after a 1-5 start to the season.
Greene was quiet in his first game back from a lengthy suspension last week, but the talismanic forward was the inspiration for the visitors.
The 28-year-old set the tone with a superb pack mark and goal inside the first two minutes of the contest, and had four by halftime as the switched-on Giants romped to a 59-point lead.
Greene was not as influential in the second half, but Josh Kelly, Lachie Whitfield, Tom Green and Isaac Cumming kept up the pace in a dominant display.
“I thought our boys’ pressure was really good and we capitalised on that, which was really pleasing,” Cameron said.
“We haven’t been doing that. It was a good, really strong, all-round performance.”
He described some of his players as “off their tucker a little bit” after a poor start to the season, but they feasted at a smorgasbord of Crows errors early. To be fair, the rampant Giants caused most of the many miscues by the out-ofsorts home side.
The Crows struggled to get out of their back half and, when they did, the Giants intercepted and pumped the ball back into an attack where Greene and Jesse Hogan (three goals) prowled with intent.