Giants squeeze home in Friday night thriller

IT won’t earn them a spot in the Grand Final, but the GWS Giants have taken revenge for last year’s preliminary final loss with a thrilling two-point win against the Western Bulldogs in Canberra last night.

They waited more than five years to play their first Friday night game, but the Giants showed the AFL world they belong in the big timeslot.

It doesn’t happen often but the sequel was every bit as good as the original fought out at Spotless Stadium seven months ago.

The only thing that marred the night was the umpiring of the deliberate out of bounds rule which left players, coaches and supporters confused.

Jeremy Cameron kicked four and Toby Greene and Jonathon Patton three each as the premiership favourites fought back after trailing by 11 points early in the last quarter.

Dylan Shiel (29 possessions), Callan Ward (27) and defenders Zac Williams (25) and Heath Shaw (24) were also strong in an even team performance.

The Bulldogs will rue their poor kicking given they had 28 scoring shots to the Giants’ 20. The Bulldogs also had 13 more inside 50s.

Marcus Bontempelli was again outstanding for the Bulldogs, booting three important goals to go with his 22 possessions (14 contested) and seven tackles.

Luke Dahlhaus, Jack Macrae and Caleb Daniel were also outstanding in the middle as the Dogs got back to their high-pressure best of last year and shaded the contested footy 159-154.

The Bulldogs’ rebound off half-back was also outstanding. Jason Johannisen was enormous in the last quarter of the preliminary final and the Giants couldn’t stop him in Canberra last night either.

He along with Rob Murphy, Zaine Cordy and Easton Wood set up countless attacks with little containment from the GWS forwards.