When you play a seven-match season, it feels like your hopes of making the NAB AFL Women’s Grand Final hang in the balance every week. 

This Friday night, when the GIANTS take on the Brisbane Lions in the final round of the 2018 season at Blacktown International Sportspark, both sides’ seasons are on the line. 

That’s not hyperbole.

It’s cold, hard, fact.

Wooden spooners in 2017, a win see the GIANTS in the box seat to book a place in the final game of the season.

That’s barring the Crows demolishing Collingwood or Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs drawing. 

Standing in the way of one of the sports stories of the year is the Brisbane Lions; runners up in 2017. 

A win will also see them into the AFLW Grand Final if other results go their way. 

The GIANTS are arguably the in-form team of the competition; they toppled the ladder-leading Bulldogs last Saturday night, dismantled the Dockers, drew with the Crows and crushed Collingwood.

Brisbane, on the other hand, are coming off the back of an unexpected loss to Collingwood at home and a close loss to Melbourne at Casey Fields. 

The GIANTS have clicked into gear. 

As forward Cora Staunton put it after last weekend’s win: “the girls are finally gaining confidence and believing in themselves”. 

Courtney Gum and Alicia Eva are on track to make the Virgin Australian AFLW All Australian squad such has been their output, while ruck Erin McKinnon has been getting better and better every week.

Forward Phoebe McWilliams didn’t kick a goal last Saturday but her forward line colleagues in Staunton, Rebecca Beeson, Jodie Hicks, Aimee Schmidt and Jacinda Barclay have been in top form.

Tanya Hetherington has been like a rock down back as fellow defenders Pepa Randall, Phoebe Monahan and Nicola Barr (whose last two matches have shown why she was taken at pick one in the 2016 AFLW Draft) have been watertight, keeping the highest-scoring team in the competition to four goals last Saturday.

They will be up against it again this Friday night. 

Brisbane’s Jess Wuetschner sits third on the goalkickers list with eight goals for the year, while 2017 Virgin Australia AFLW All Australian Sabrina Frederick-Traub has hit her straps of late and has four goals for the year.

The Lions also boast four of the top 11 possession getters in the competition (Kate Lutkins 105 disposals, Alexandra Anderson 103, Emily Bates 103 and Jamie Stanton 99). 

Tahlia Randall will also present a difficult challenge for the GIANTS’ McKinnon in the ruck, despite the latter standing 16cm taller than her opponent.

WHEN AND WHERE: Friday March 16, Blacktown International Sportspark at 7.05PM

TV AND RADIO: Click Here  

LAST TIME THEY MET: Round 4 – Saturday February 25, 2017 South Pine Sports Complex

GIANTS 1.3 (9)

Bulldogs 6.7 (43) 

Goal: Stanton 1. 

THE FIVE POINTS: 

1 The GIANTS dominated the Lions in a pre-season match played over five terms in late January, winning 12.4 (76) to 4.2 (26). A result similar to that would see the GIANTS lock away second spot on the ladder barring the Crows winning their match by about 12 goals.

2 The last time the two sides met for premiership points the GIANTS only managed one goal in a 34 point loss at the South Pine Sports Complex. Only 13 currently listed GIANTS featured in that game and no doubt they’ll be out to put in a better performance.

3 The previous point illustrates how far the GIANTS have come scoring-wise in 2018. In the inaugural season the GIANTS kicked six goals or more in just one game; the round three draw with Fremantle. In 2018 they’ve kicked six goals or more four times, losing just once in round one when they achieved that feat.

4 Cora Staunton and Nicola Barr are amongst the elite in the competition when it comes to time spent on ground. Both have played every game in 2018 and Staunton is ranked 16th in the competition for time on ground, playing 92.6 per cent of every game. That would be nearer to 100 per cent game time if not for a broken nose during the GIANTS’ win over Collingwood. Barr, a hard-running half-back, is ranked 18th having spent 92.1 per cent on ground.

5 They say the little things can go a long way in footy and the GIANTS’ defensive unit is proof of this. All five of the GIANTS’ defenders are in the top 20 of the competition for one percenters (smothers, spoils, shepherds or knock ons). Tanya Hetherington is fourth in the competition with 20 one percenters for the year, while Phoebe Monahan is close behind in equal sixth with 17. Overall the GIANTS are third in the competition for one percenters with 149.