Josh Kelley – Michmutters
Categories
Sports

GWS Giants, salary cap, Josh Kelly, Nick Haynes, Tim Taranto, Jacob Hopper, Tanner Bruhn, Lachie Whitfield, Tom Green, trade, whispers

GWS need to follow Collingwood’s lead and commit to a salary cap dump in a bid to rejuvenate a list that’s missing “an A-grader”, according to journalist Jon Ralph.

The Giants are languishing in 16th position with just five wins for 2022 – with coach Leon Cameron an early casualty.

Speaking on Fox Footy’s On The Couch, Ralph said the GWS salary cap reset was “officially on”, with a host of players set to be put up for trade.

Watch every blockbuster AFL match this weekend Live & Ad-Break Free In-Play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >

“I think rather than an exodus of players wanting to flee this club, I think it’s a really calculated decision by this club (that) we need to fix this salary cap issue once and for all,” he said.

“If you are going to do it, over three or four years, do it now with really tough decisions.

“Josh Kelly’s contract hits $1.2m at some stage – it’s back-ended, Nick Haynes next year is on over $800,000 – back-ended. That’s a decision the club’s made, but you can fix it right now.

“The inside mids will depart; Jacob Hopper, Tanner Bruhn, Bobby Hill as a small forward, I think to Collingwood.

“The Giants would love to keep Tim Taranto who can play as a medium forward, but he wants to play as an inside mid but they will not push him out.

“I think if someone wanted to pay Haynes’ salary, I think he’d be available.”

Super Swans clobber sub-par Giants | 01:02

Ralph said rumors of a Lachie Whitfield exit were incorrect, and said Tom Green would remain at the club too.

“Lachie Whitfield will not be part of a trade … he’s had an ankle that’s been so bad since Round 8 he’s needed surgery but he’s battled on,” he said.

“Tom Green, happy, contracted, part of those 14 players (called out by caretaker coach Mark McVeigh) and that brings the speculation that he won’t be there.

Collingwood missed the flag. Two years later, the salary cap exodus. I think it’s taken one more year but they are going to do something about it and it’s going to cause a ripple effect.

“Over a million bucks of cap space over next year and potentially years to come as well.”

GWS Giants press conference | 10:43

Ralph said the exits of Hopper, Bruhn, Hill and Taranto would still leave the Giants with the likes of Stephen Coniglio, Kelly, Green and Whitfield.

And it would free up some space to target an “A-grader” like Collingwood’s Brodie Grundy.

“They’ve got three ruckmen who are probably worth $1 million (combined) – none of them are A-graders,” Ralph said.

“Would you make strong decisions to bring in Brodie Grundy, pay him his $1 million and you’ve got A-graders, difference makers.

“You might create space for the key position forward. It’s not they’ve got too many stars, it’s they are an unbalanced list which is why they want to bring in a key position forward and maybe a ruckman.”

.

Categories
Sports

GWS Giants caretaker coach Mark McVeigh post-match press conference, rivals urged to take advantage, trade news, rumors, whispers, reactions, response, commentary, latest

Giants caretaker coach Mark McVeigh’s brutally honest assessment that his players “checked out” in the club’s 73-point Sydney derby loss have raised the eyebrows of pundits including a call for rivals to leverage the situation to try and raid his talent.

McVeigh didn’t hold back in his assessment of his team’s post-match performance, labeling it “embarrassing,” and even saying only eight players “went to the wall” and that the club has “got to shift the standards.”

It comes as several stars including Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper face uncertain futures at Western Sydney and have been linked to trade talks.

Watch every blockbuster AFL match this weekend Live & Ad-Break Free In-Play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >

And former Melbourne skipper Garry Lyon believes rivals should look to take advantage of McVeigh’s post-match comments in their bid to lure players out of the club.

“In the ruthless industry that we’re in, those comments for me also give Richmond, just for example, if you were interested in Tom Green before the weekend and those comments, then now you are going as hard as you possibly could – or Taranto or Hopper for that matter,” he said on SEN Breakfast.

“Whoever the teams are that are interested in them, you’re going ‘righto, this is where they see you, and here’s your opportunity’.”

Several Giants including Hopper and Taranto have been linked to trades (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)Source: FOX SPORTS

It comes after St Kilda great Nick Riewoldt feared McVeigh’s comments could cost the caretaker coach a full-time gig in 2023.

The Giants have now fallen to 3-7 under McVeigh since he took over from Leon Cameron in Round 10 including dropping their last four consecutive games to slide to 16th on the ladder.

And speaking on McVeigh’s bold statements on Fox Footy’s First CrackRoos legend David King questioned whether an interim boss was in a position to launch such a scathing assessment.

“They’re huge statements, and this is a bit of an awkward situation, it’s a caretaker coach. I know he’s been (in charge) for 10 weeks and there’s some frustration there … but I’m not convinced that a caretaker coach can make those sorts of grand statements,” King said.

“I’m not sure he can question the standards of your football club and (say) that they’ve got to shift, he can name only eight players and isolate the rest.

“(Saying), ‘We’ve going to find players who want to fight it out,’ I’m comfortable with that, of course, that’s the gig. But questioning whether players have checked out — they’re pretty bold statements and sweeping statements that go across a club.

“Gee whiz, I wonder whether the footy manager would grab him and say, ‘hey, listen, (saying we) embarrassed the club’s a bit strong. We’ve still got three weeks to finish off here. We still need a positive environment, we still need to challenge everyone to get better, absolutely.’

“But saying, ‘we’ve got to shift the standards of our football club’ is a poor reflection on the total club, not just not just the representation on field for that two hours.”

NEW FIRST CRACK PODCAST — R20 wrap: ‘Arrogant’ Blues torched, Danger’s best flag chance

Listen below or subscribe in Apple Podcasts or Spotify

Dual All-Australian Leigh Montagna believes isolating the performances of eight players was the most damning, saying it “threw the other 14 under the bus”.

“The eight he mentioned were the leaders including Lachie Whitfield and Josh Kelly, who I didn’t think they had a huge influence,” Montagna said.

“Basically he’s throwing all the kids under the bus — James Peatling, Jacob Wehr, Leek Aleer, Xavier O’Halloran, Lachie Ash and Tom Green. They’re all still trying to find themselves as players.

“To not include them almost saying, ‘well, they didn’t go to the well for the team,’ I thought was a bit unfair. Start with the leaders, they need to change the culture of the footy club. He did mention a few of the younger ones who are coming up, Sam Taylor and Harry Perryman, but I think it needs to start right at the top.”

The Giants are 3-7 under McVeigh (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)Source: FOX SPORTS

Former St Kilda and Fremantle coach Ross Lyon also wasn’t a fan of McVeigh’s post-match criticism.

“Instinctively I didn’t like it at all, because you’re individualizing the ones who did and the ones that didn’t, and you’re distancing yourself,” he said on Triple M.

“I think there’s conversations you have behind closed doors. I didn’t like it at all… there’s three rounds to go, there’s things you often want to say as the senior coach, but you can be too honest.

“You can’t do that to your playing group… you lose them straight away. What’s the reason they’re like that? Your job is then to dive in and try and get to that and turn it around. I don’t know how that’s being achieved by saying it publicly.

“At the end of the day you’ve taken the reins, it can’t be all care and no responsibility. When you put your hand up to take the chair you can’t separate yourself.

“He’s a really strong character and really well respected, but just saying it doesn’t mean things are going to.

.

Categories
Sports

Giants coach Mark McVeigh slams own team after Sydney Swans thrashing

The GWS Giants have been lambasted by interim coach Mark McVeigh who said the club was embarrassed in their 17.10 (112) to 5.9 (39) thumping in the Sydney Derby and questioned whether some of his players had “checked out”.

The Sydney Swans victory was courtesy of their highest margin in a derby since 2015 and further incurred humiliation on a Giants outfit that have won only five games for the season and now sit in a 16th position.

Watch every blockbuster AFL match this weekend Live & Ad-Break Free In-Play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >

It’s a horrible predicament for a list still laden with so much talent and that prompted McVeigh to lash out post-game.

“We embarrassed our club,” he said.

“They’re far superior to us at the moment, clearly. It’s an unfortunate part of dealing with whether players have checked out or not.”

“I’m extremely disappointed with our midfield as a whole today. It’s just pure work rate and effort. Wanting to defend, wanting to tackle. The motivation should be how proud you are of you as a player and how proud you are of playing for the Giants.”

McVeigh said only eight players in Sam Taylor, Harry Perryman, Josh Kelly, Callan Ward, Adam Kennedy, Lachie Whitfield, Jesse Hogan and Toby Greene “went to the wall” and fought through until the end of the game.

The former Essendon great said he spent a long time in the rooms with the players after the game and sat in silence to see what responses were elicited from the playing group.

I have added that there needs to be a leadership change over in the playing group at the club.

“Without going too much into it we got some good honest feedback from our peers and players which is good. Some players spoke up that you don’t often hear from which is what we need from this club going forward.”

McVeigh singled out two players as future leaders of the club in Harry Perryman, who did an excellent job tagging Swans jet Chad Warner and Sam Taylor who was supreme at the back yet again as he pushes for an All-Australian guernsey and first best and fairest award.

“He is severely dominating games. I’d hate to think if he wasn’t playing how many goals they would have kicked. He’s a star, absolute star,” McVeigh said.

Read related topics:sydney

.