Greater Western Sydney captain Stephen Coniglio has whipped the first half of his team against Sydney, calling them “hopeless”.
The Giants score of 1.3 (9) was the lowest half-time score since their first season in the AFL, with the Swans taking the lead by 23 points during the main break.
AFL star Jason Dunstall suggested the Giants were “rudderless” during the inaugural season, and Coniglio’s alarming comments came before the mid-term meeting.
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Gears: We were hopeless!
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“(That was) really hopeless. We have to come in there and find an answer, ”he said Fox Footy.
“We were in this position twice in two weeks and now we have to find something. I just think they want it more than we do. You’re just looking at the competition.
“We got back a little bit in this area, but they cut us forward with the ball and (it’s) just not good enough.”
It was an effort that did not surprise former St. Kilda captain Nick Riewoldt after seeing a similar performance over the past fortnight.
“We saw that two weeks ago when they played against the Bombers. They had a normal first half and were four goals behind but were good enough and proud enough to work their way back into the competition and eventually win it.” he said.
“You wouldn’t call it an issue, but you would say it’s really worrying for a team that has so much talent and spices it up in the first quarter.”
At the quarter hour, Dunstall added his belief that the Giants were showing no “ghost” in a match that was simply expected to win.
“We know they have good players, but for me that fifteen-minute performance is lacking in spirit,” he said.
‘Rank’-Kick sums up the GWS start
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“We didn’t see any despair, nothing that says, ‘Hey, we’re a team that wants to get where we want and we’re just going to get everything out of the way. ‘It looks like they’re going through the motions.
“Nobody comes out and doesn’t try, they all try, but they seem to be rudderless right now. You need the leaders to play well, they need everyone to play well because they don’t move football well at all.
“You won’t look efficient in the future. If you encounter good defensive performance, they look like a rudderless ship right now. “
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