Undermanned Saints outlast Giants to notch gritty eight-point win

Greater Western Sydney have stumbled at the first hurdle in their bid to reassert themselves as an AFL contender, losing a thriller by eight points to an undermanned St Kilda on Sunday.

The Giants did well to fight back from 16 points down to hit the lead in a tense final quarter – which, like the three before it, ebbed and flowed with good moments for both sides.

The Giants fell by eight points in an opening-round thriller which will do little to silence critics of the AFL’s newest club.Credit:Getty

Membrey finished with three goals for St Kilda, while Ross, Jack Higgins and Lonie all finished with two apiece. For GWS, Harry Himmelberg booted three goals in his first match as the team’s focal point in attack following the off-season departure of Jeremy Cameron to Geelong.

There was far more at stake on Sunday for the Giants, who are determined to prove that last year’s failure to make the top eight was an anomaly in a unique season – not a sign of things to come.

Their performance will do little to convince critics who believe their premiership window is closing, and it will immediately turn up the heat on coach Leon Cameron, who signed a two-year contract extension last year before overseeing GWS’s slide from grand finalists in 2019 to 10th on the ladder in 2020.

The Giants, too, were short a few key players, but were unable to match the energy and composure of the Saints when the result was on the line.

The worst of Sydney’s wild weather had passed by the first bounce at Sydney Olympic Park, but occasional showers and a slippery deck ensured it would be a tight, low-scoring war of attrition – and so it proved.

The hosts looked up for it initially and kicked the first two goals, with Toby Greene scaling Dougal Howard’s back for a mark-of-the-year contender that led to the opening goal – although it appeared to be touched first by the man in front, Paul Hunter.

But the Saints hit back with five of the next six goals – the first of many momentum swings in a contest where the lead changed hands five times.

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