There’s some new faces selected but almost 400 games more experience as the GIANTS named their 25-man squad for the round one clash with St Kilda at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
New recruits Ryan Griffen and Joel Patfull will officially debut for the GIANTS while coach Leon Cameron confirmed second-year cult figure Cam McCarthy will line up in the forward line after a scintillating NAB Challenge series.
Cameron said it was exciting to finally be able to see his new recruits on the field.
“Griffen’s been outstanding,” Cameron said. “His connection that he’s building up with Shane Mumford and Adam Treloar and Dylan Shiel and Callan Ward, you can see it’s going to be a weapon for us.
“Joel’s got a really good record on (Saints captain Nick) Riewoldt, I think they’ve had some really good battles when Joel was at Brisbane.
“Cam will play in the 22 this week. He’s been fantastic in his three NAB Challenge games. He’s taken his opportunity.
“His last game there was as a sub against the Dogs last year in round 22. He gets to play this weekend and we look forward to seeing what Cam can form with Jeremy (Cameron), Adam Tomlinson, Rhys Palmer and Devon Smith.”
As the GIANTS head into their fourth season, Cameron acknowledged that expectations would rise for the club, starting with this weekend’s game against the Saints.
“The expectation internally is we’re here and we’re into our fourth year, we expect to win games,” he said.
“We expect to win more games than we did last year. We come up against St Kilda and it’s a 50/50 game. We haven’t beaten the Saints in our three years of existence.
“Round one games are really, really hard to win but we come in with confidence, we’ve had a great NAB Challenge campaign and we look forward to Sunday.”
The GIANTS will face the Saints at Etihad Stadium on Sunday, April 5 at 1.10pm. The final 22-man side will be named on gwsgiants.com.au on Friday at 5pm.
GWS GIANTS Squad
FB: Heath Shaw, Joel Patfull, Nick Haynes
HB: Phil Davis, Aidan Corr, Lachie Whitfield
C: Tommy Bugg, Callan Ward, Tom Scully
HF: Rhys Palmer, Jeremy Cameron, Toby Greene
FF: Devon Smith, Adam Tomlinson, Ryan Griffen
R: Shane Mumford, Stephen Coniglio, Dylan Shiel
Interchange (from): Zac Wiliams, Curtly Hampton, Adam Treloar, Josh Kelly, Tom Downie, Matt Buntine, Cam McCarthy
The Old and the New
There’s some new faces selected but almost 400 games more experience as the GIANTS named their 25-man squad for the round one clash with St Kilda at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
