West Coast snatched a thriller from GWS on Sunday to record their third win of the season, now turning their attention to spoiling Pendlebury’s party at the ‘G on Saturday.
The Giants are in all sorts of trouble after a slow start to the season, battling an extensive injury list and now sitting in 13th holding a record of 4-6 despite finishing 5th last season.
Big names like Tom Green and Xavier O’Halloran are set to sit on the sidelines for quite some time, but the team is expected to get some relief with the return of Jesse Hogan, Sam Taylor and Leek Aleer in the coming weeks.
Harley Reid was crucial in the Eagles’ victory on Sunday, recording 34 disposals and snagging two goals.
West Coast young gun Brady Hough joined Sports Breakfast this morning.
“I thought for the past three or four weeks we’ve been seeing patches of some really good footy, so to put four quarters together on the weekend, it was a great feeling,” he said.
“I think the pressure went to another level, it was the best I’ve seen for a long time. The mids to the forwards [were] putting on a lot of pressure and that just allowed our backs to play to our system, be really proactive and I thought for a lot of the game we were able to keep the ball in our front half.
“Our fundamentals were a lot better, first gives, just getting us out of the contest and things like that. All in all our game plan just came together, we trusted each other, we brought the heat and we were able to get the four points.”
Milan Murdock and Brady Hough were given the tasks of keeping the impact of Giants’ ball movers Finn Callaghan and Lachie Whitfield to a minimum – the game plan proving effective at the final siren.
“He’s [Callaghan] a big driver of their back half ball movement and that’s what they’re really good at along with Lachie Whitfield.”
“The coaches set me up really well with watching vision and giving me tips on how to do it… I’m glad I was able to execute that for the team, we knew if we could take him out of the game it would go a long way for us to get the four points.”
Bailey Williams got the better of Kieren Briggs with 11 more hitouts than the Giants’ ruckman, also adding two majors to the tally.
“I loved being in the middle with Baz. I think his leadership’s gone to another level as well and he’s had to with such a young group.”
“We’ve got a lot of trust that he can go out there and do it again, he’s getting his hand on the ball a lot – especially in centre bounces.”
After a week of intense media build-up to Pendlebury’s record breaking 433rd game, West Coast will be looking to be the villains in Scotty’s success story.
“We’re not going over there to celebrate, we’re going over there to get the four points.”
“Obviously a lot of us young boys haven’t played in front of a crowd this big. We’re lucky enough to have a few players that played in the ’18 Grand Final in Duggo and Coley and a few players, so they sort of gave us a few words on what it’s like and what it might be like on the weekend.”
“This is sort of what you dreamed of as a kid – to play in front of this many fans at the MCG. So even though they’re Collingwood supporters, I can’t wait. I’ll be soaking it in and hopefully it gives me a bit of fuel to go out there and play a good game.”
90,000 fans are expected to turn up to witness history this Saturday, with the twilight match kicking off at 2:35pm AWST.