By Nicholas Quinlan
Is it often said by many within the game that a week is a long time in football.
Well, then 17 weeks in football must be eternity, with the Giants at long last playing a game at the ‘G for the first time this season.It may have been in the off-Broadway slot of Sunday at 3:20pm and in conditions that an older gentleman in front of me said reminded him of the days out at Arctic Park, but nonetheless it is always a special occasion whenever the orange team finds itself at what Adam Kingsley describes as “the happiest place on Earth”.
Against Richmond, it looked like the Giants would win comfortably after having won against second place Carlton after storming back from a 39-point deficit to win by 12.
While Richmond was coming into this game eighteenth on the ladder for the first time in club history and were expected to lose, they have had the recent wood over us.
They had won the last three out of four matches against us, and we had never beaten them at the MCG.
And if this season has shown us anything, it’s that on any given Sunday any team can pull an upset and win.
As is normal with a GWS game at the ‘G, the tinges of orange on the jackets of the ticket gate assistants and MCG workers would help improve the visibility of the Giants team colours alongside the smatterings of GWS scarfs and beanies.
And with it turning out to be 19,040 in attendance for the match that visibility would only increase. In comparison, to exactly five years to the day when they played at the ’G that brought in over 38,000 in attendance.
The only difference was the Richmond was sixth and would go on to win the premiership later in the prime of the Richmond dynasty compared to now in the first year of a rebuild.
As the game got started, Richmond got the first goal for the match.
But the Giants responded quickly with their first goal for the game coming through a coast-to-coast passage. With that, it was looking like that it would be the first tidal wave of many to come.
With the Giants then scoring the next two taking the lead back, it only further cemented the idea of them kicking away for a big win.
But to Richmond’s credit, they kept themselves within a two-goal margin for the majority of first half. As they traded goals through the latter end of the first quarter and early parts of the second goal, it seemed that we were going to be in for a tussle of a match.
But the Giants were able to hold their nerve and maintain the lead before finally being able to kick consecutive goals through two of the three Toby’s in Greene and McMullin with Callan Ward also getting in with a goal.
From there, it looked like the floodgates of goals that many were expecting were going to open as they continually transitioned the ball from their defensive 50 with relative ease with the likes of Jack Buckley, Harry Himmelberg and Lachie Ash handballing their way out of trouble and moving the ball quickly into their forward half.
But with a late goal through Steely Green, Richmond were right back to only 15 points at half-time.
Although we were probably expecting to be a lot further in front, it was quite impressive that despite being beaten in both the inside 50 and clearances count, we were still in the lead. It just goes to show how good our turnover game, particularly from our defensive half, had been.
This would hold true within the second half with the Giants making the most of the few inside 50s we had to show on the scoreboard resulting in a game high 37-point lead just as the fourth quarter started.
Once again as they had done in the first half, Richmond was giving themselves every chance of keeping the game alive. Through their third game player in Steely Green who had a resolve similar to his namesake to keep Richmond in the game scoring two quick goals, it saw the Richmond support stir once more with hopes of a third win for the season.
In the end, GWS through goals from Callan Ward and the unlikely Kieran Briggs, were able to hold firm and claim a four-goal victory.
As they thanked the fans after the game, you could see the relief on their faces as they congregated at the race after the win.
While it may have not been the margin that Giants fans were expected, or a game were they absolutely dominated for the full 120 minutes, they still walked away with four points on the road.
And on any given Sunday, four points is all that matters at the end of the match.
Nicholas Quinlan is currently studying a Bachelor of Arts majoring in both Media & Communications and Politics. When he isn’t watching the Giants play, you’ll find him watching any sport he can get his eyes on or reading any book he can get his hands on. He also writes articles for The Roar.