GWS switched on to Tom & Jerry danger
GREATER Western Sydney will have a different perspective to tap into when it prepares for one of the league’s most dominant forward pairings.
Former Cats player and current Giants forward coach Steve Johnson played alongside Geelong great Tom Hawkins for nine years, often finding himself at the feet of the key forward.
Johnson said his history with Hawkins, with whom he won three premierships, and the Giants’ knowledge of former superstar teammate Jeremy Cameron gave his side a unique insight into the pair.
“I played a lot of footy with Tom, and he seems to get better and better with age,” Johnson said.
“Our defenders are in for a big challenge to contain them.
“Geelong has taken the most marks inside-50 in the competition and they’ve started to move the ball a bit quicker and get the ball into their forwards when they’re isolated.
“About 60 per cent of their entries go to either Tom Hawkins or Jeremy Cameron, so their opponents will certainly have their work cut out for them.
“But we can’t just be too locked on and focused on them because they’ve also got some dangerous smalls at ground level that we’ll need to put some time into, they’re working really well together at the moment.”
The Giants are coming off a convincing 57-point win against Adelaide and Johnson said they would need to be as efficient against Geelong.
“We always want to be the best versions of ourselves any given week and that’ll help us kick a winning score,” he said.
“Our forward line functioned much better last week, clearly it’s easier when the midfield is well on top but we’ve been a little undermanned with Toby (Greene) out and a few injuries.
“(Stephen) Coniglio looks better each time, and he spent more time forward and Lachie (Whitfield) moved from the defence to attack a few weeks ago and gives us some threats up forward, which we didn’t have.”