Saturday’s AFL Round 5 will consist of four matches with the first of them being between Greater Western Sydney Giants and Gold Coast Suns with the game to be played at StarTrack Oval. The opening bounce is set to commence at 1:45pm local time with the away team Gold Coast Suns currently holding favouritism for the match between the two newest teams in the competition. View our live scores, odds and results of the game between Greater Western Sydney Giants and Gold Coast Suns.
WHERE AND WHEN: StarTrack Oval, 1:45 PM April 27, 2013
Opening Odds:
Greater Western Sydney Giants $2.95 vs Gold Coast Suns $1.43 at Sportsbet Australia
Greater Western Sydney Giants $2.90 vs Gold Coast Suns $1.42 at Luxbet Australia
Preview:
A GWS vs Gold Coast match may not scream quality, but the Suns have shown a lot of improvement this season and GWS were impressive last weekend for at least three quarters against Melbourne. In contrast, the Gold Coast were poor against Port Adelaide last week, but will be keen to revenge their pre-season loss to GWS earlier in the year.
Teams:
Greater Western Sydney Giants:
B: Adam Kennedy, Tim Mohr, Lachie Plowman
HB: Nick Haynes, Phil Davis, Sam Reid
C: Tom Scully, Callan Ward, Lachie Whitfield
HF: Rhys Palmer, Jeremy Cameron, Adam Tomlinson
F: Devon Smith, Setanta O’hAilpin, Zachary Williams
Foll: Jonathan Giles, Adam Treloar, Dylan Shiel
I/C: Stephen Coniglio, Toby Greene, Tomas Bugg, Bret Thornton
Emg: Curtley Hampton, Jacob Townsend, Sam Frost
IN: Bret Thornton, Devon Smith, Adam Tomlinson, Lachie Plowman, Zachary Williams
OUT: Stephen Gilham, Anthony Miles, Jacob Townsend, Liam Sumner, Sam Frost
New: Zachary Williams
Gold Coast Suns:
B: Trent McKenzie, Steven May, Jack Hutchins
HB: Thomas Murphy, Rory Thompson, Greg Broughton
C: Michael Rischitelli, Gary Ablett, Jarrod Harbrow
HF: Danny Stanley, Thomas Lynch, Aaron Hall
F: Zac Smith, Sam Day, Brandon Matera
Foll: Charlie Dixon, Karmichael Hunt, David Swallow
I/C: Dion Prestia, Jaeger O’Meara, Jared Brennan, Matt Shaw
Emerg: Kyal Horsley, Luke Russell, Tim Sumner
IN: Danny Stanley, Trent McKenzie, Thomas Lynch
OUT: Matthew Warnock (arm), Luke Russell, Joel Wilkinson (ankle)
Suns prepare for another GWS ambush
Gold Coast coach Guy McKenna wants his wounded Suns to show their pride and avoid another Canberra ambush against Greater Western Sydney this weekend.
The Giants claimed their first win as an AFL club against the Suns in the inaugural meeting of the expansion franchises at Manuka Oval in May last year, kicking four goals in as many minutes in the final term to snatch a 13.16 (94) to 9.13 (67) triumph.
McKenna admits that loss still hurts both him and his players and it’s a scenario he’s desperate to avoid as he calls on his charges to prove their worth following last weekend’s disappointing defeat to Port Adelaide.
“Last year we found it was like their grand final,” McKenna said on Wednesday.
“Canberra, their home away from home, they talked that up … if you look at their season it gives them the best opportunity of winning and we were stung last year.
“I’m sure Kevin (Sheedy, GWS coach) will be reminding GWS about their last quarter against Melbourne as well and cranking them up.
“Clearly it’s going to be a big game for them, they’re going to build that up and so they should.
“We’ve got to be ready to stand our ground and take the fight back to them.”
McKenna admits he’s not been able to be as tough on his team as he would have liked in the wake of the 38-point loss to the Power where the visitors booted nine goals to one in the second quarter.
Injuries to Matthew Warnock (fractured arm), Joel Wilkinson (ankle) and Harley Bennell (hamstring) mean several Suns will keep their spots in the team to take on the Giants when McKenna clearly would have loved to send out a stern message.
“The guillotine (is) being sharpened, it’s going to cut this week but it’s probably not going to cut as deep as you’d love to do in a traditional club,” McKenna said.
“We’re going to have three blokes jump straight in and what you’d love to do is drop three blokes that deserve to dropped based on that effort on Saturday night.
“We can be tough but it’s a thinly-veiled idea of being tough where you’re really just replacing injured blokes.”
