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.
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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.
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