GIANTS VOW TO WIN FOR COACH
GIANTS co-captain Stephen Coniglio says the club can still make a late finals dash as he pledged to give departing coach Leon Cameron a victory farewell against Carlton on Sunday.
Coniglio admitted he was shocked when Cameron called the club’s leaders into a meeting at 8.20am on Thursday to announce that he would step aside for caretaker coach Mark McVeigh.
It will start an exhaustive search but Coniglio firmly believes a new coach will inherit a list that is capable of winning an elusive premiership.
He said despite the rocky start to the season, the Giants had enough talent to surge all the way to September if they snapped their run of inconsistent performances.
“I am still confident. Being at 2-6 is not great, but I think there are some wins just around the corner for us,” Coniglio said.
“No way do I think the season is over. From what we have been saying to the players, we just need to get a win and then two and three, but finals is still a goal for myself.
“We need to put in some really strong performances and we are coming up against a really good side, so there is a balance of playing for the coach one last time and sending him off and just playing some of the footy we played against Adelaide a fortnight ago because we let ourselves down last week.
“There is a natural motivation which will come easier this week but for us it’s about doing it for four quarters.”
The Giants will consider coaches such as Alastair Clarkson and James Hird, with Coniglio admitting the former Essendon coach still had the natural advantage of his aura of greatness.
“For a lot of the players he was one of our favourite players, so he has got that aura about him,” Coniglio said.
“He was a superstar of the game. He has been overseeing our leadership program with our leadership group and emerging leaders so he’s been great in terms of the knowledge and mindset about how to go about things.”
Hird is believed to be open to expanding his involvement with the Giants to help good mate McVeigh.
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said on Friday if Hird wanted to coach the club then the AFL had no problems with his involvement.