I haven’t had many nights taking over as The Roar‘s resident AFL nerd where I’ve questioned why I chose this line of work.
But about midway through the third quarter on Thursday night at Marvel Stadium, with GWS playing at about seventh gear and still far, far too good for an Essendon team held together by duct tape and prayers at this point, it became clear that any meaningful analysis of the Giants’ 48-point win would be utterly frivolous.
The Bombers are counting down the days until this season from hell at last can be over; the Giants’ primary focus of avoiding injury was so obvious that the most entertaining part of the evening was Channel 7’s half time show featuring a mic’d up Tom Green repeatedly flaming his teammates for their insipid efforts.
Suffice to say this: the Bombers gave it a red hot crack in the first quarter, kicked five straight behinds from 13 inside 50s while the Giants banged on two goals from their only two shots at goal, and from there the only way was down.
From the Giants’ point of view, there’s only really one thing that can be taken from a match where four points are safely banked and all copies of it destroyed once the post-game review is completed: this was Jake Stringer’s best game since donning the orange and charcoal in last year’s trade period.
Even that has the quite sizeable caveat of a Bombers backline all at sea in terms of its structure, even though with Mason Redman, Jayden Laverde and Jordan Ridley in defence it’s arguably their most experienced line. The Giants split the Dons open time and again with their classic brand of overlap running from half-back and precision kicks through the corridor, with the end result an open 50 presenting all manner of opportunities for forwards willing to run into the open space on offer.
Jake Stringer celebrates a goal. (Photo by Morgan Hancock/Getty Images)
In ten previous games for the Giants, Stringer had shown flashes of being a potential game-changer at the pointy end of a season – though, as is normally the case with him, in small doses.
He threatened to dismantle Geelong at GMHBA Stadium with two goals in a quarter and a half before his hamstring went; against Gold Coast on his return, the reverse was true, named as the substitute and firing late with two critical last-quarter goals to inspire a stirring come-from-behind win.
Four goals against the Cats last week provided the icing on the cake of the Giants’ electrifying pace up the ground; against the Bombers, though, it wasn’t simply a matter of cashing in, but rather making the play.
Stringer at his best is among the AFL’s more versatile mid-sized forwards, capable of a run through the midfield and being a menace at forward-50 stoppages.
With GWS already well-stocked for midfield might, extra elements like having the Package on the run around ball-ups, as in this case when he linked up perfectly with Kieren Briggs before unselfishly dishing off a goal, will be ultra-handy if a side that has lost its last three finals by a goal or less can pull off a set play like it when September rolls around.
The extra challenge Stringer presents at the Giants, as opposed to his seven years at Essendon, is that he effectively is being picked as a small forward. Jesse Hogan, Aaron Cadman and Callum Brown are all more mobile big men than most, but in the majority of occasions, the veteran is going to spend most of his time crumbing at their feet or leading out from their focal points rather than the second or at best third tall he was at the Bombers.
That brings with it advantages: Laverde was his opponent for much of Thursday night even with Hogan missing, and the class gap was relatively stark. The opposition’s top defender, for instance, is unlikely to give him a run and jump at the footy with anywhere near this degree of freedom.
For all his faults, and for all the frustration he has caused over a decade in which he has teased the greatness he seemed certain to reach when an All-Australian at 21 at the Western Bulldogs, Stringer is exactly the secret weapon for finals a team like GWS needs: a high ceiling, magical-moments type who can be covered by more consistent talent for most of the game and bob up for a match-turning moment or two.
The signs are promising that that is what he can deliver, too. After barely being able to hit the side of a barn door in his first few matches as a Giant, Stringer’s kicking is now as reliable as it has been at any stage of his career: amid the boos of disgruntled Bomber fans, his 50-metre strike early in the second quarter was made to look utterly effortless.
What would have pleased Adam Kingsley even more than the game-high three goals were the eight score involvements and two goal assists, stats only Tom Green exceeded on the night. For a known lair, his willingness to use teammates, even going out of his way to gift young Max Grusewski a second-quarter goal, spoke of a man who knows he’s at a team where it’s no longer about him in any sense of the word.
Fitness will always be a concern with Stringer, but 78 per cent game is a perfect balance given he was given freer reign than earlier in the season to roam up the ground and get involved in the play. It’s not his forward line – it’ll be Hogan’s when he returns, and even Cadman and Toby Greene hold sway in the pecking order, but all the better for a player with the attributes to make him as dangerous a fifth-tier forward as any in the league.
Stringer hasn’t won a final since 2016, in which he was by and large a bystander in the Western Bulldogs’ historic premiership.
But that day offers a glimpse of just what he can do at the Giants if given the opportunity: enduring the most miserable of afternoons for three and a half quarters, a quicksilver snap out of a pack when given the slightest breathing space by Sydney saw him slam on a crucial final-term goal, extend the Dogs’ lead, and ensure he could receive a premiership medal and feel he deserved it.
The Giants don’t lack for talent. They don’t lack for tackling pressure, or midfield beasts, or key forwards, or literally anything else from as well-spread an array of star power as anyone in the league.
If Jake Stringer can complement that with a little bit of magic – and he has never seemed more capable of that than right now – then maybe, just maybe, he can help GWS avoid the September heartbreak that has been the defining trait of their time in the AFL so far.
