Greater Western Sydney have gone some way to avenging last year’s preliminary final defeat to Collingwood by inflicting one of the worst losses of Pies coach Craig McRae’s career.
After a tight first quarter and a half, the Giants kicked away just before half-time and then piled on the only four goals in a dominant third quarter to set up the comfortable 32-point victory.
Collingwood were missing veteran Jeremy Howe, Nathan Murphy and Billy Frampton from last year’s premiership back six and the Giants’ powerful forward line exposed the makeshift defence that featured debutant Charlie Dean.
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Callum Brown (five) and Jesse Hogan (four) combined for nine goals, while Brent Daniels kicked four and Aaron Cadman chimed in with two in a scintillating performance.
There’s no timeline on when Murphy will return, but Howe should be fit for next week and Frampton is also available if the Pies look to mix things up ahead of next week’s clash against Sydney.
But it wasn’t just up forward where the Giants dominated.
Midfield trio Tom Green, Lachie Whitfield and Josh Kelly had the better of Collingwood’s midfield, while the defence kept the Pies’ forwards in check.
The performance left former Collingwood and Carlton star Dale Thomas in no doubt the Giants will be among the contenders this year.
“From what we’ve seen tonight, this is a team that is certainly going to be contending,” Thomas said on Channel 7.
“If this is the benchmark of their performance, it is Round 1, so it is a long season and you have to have luck and everything … but the small sample is size we’ve seen at the minute says this is a clubhouse leader.”
The only downside was the shoulder injury to veteran Callan Ward, who appears certain to miss multiple weeks after falling on the joint under the weight of a Beau McCreery tackle in the second term.
Meanwhile, only a late flurry of goals prevented the Magpies from suffering their worst loss in McRae’s tenure as Magpies coach, which was 48 points to the Western Bulldogs in Round 9, 2022.
“This is one of their poorer performances,” Richmond great Matthew Richardson said on Channel 7.
Jude Bolton added: “They only conceded 17 goals or more twice last year against Brisbane and the Giants have managed to pile on 18 goals … so next week they just really want to tighten up defensively.”
A hot start from Brown featured three goals from his first three kicks of the season and steered the Giants to an eight-point lead by the first break.
Two second-quarter goals from Hogan, Brown’s fourth major and Daniels’ second pushed the advantage out to 19 points.
GWS had booted 10.5 from just 24 forward entries by the main break as the Pies’ usually well-organised defence was sliced open.
Brayden Maynard resumed his personal rivalry with Toby Greene and kept the GWS skipper relatively quiet.
But a brilliant Greene goal on the boundary line under pressure from Oleg Markov was the highlight of the third quarter, and he finished with four goal assists.
The Giants piled on four unanswered goals for the third term to take control as the lead ballooned to 40 points.
Collingwood have been the league’s comeback kings over the past two years but there was no fairytale this time, despite the Magpies kicking four of the last five goals of the game.
Nick Daicos (34 disposals, 10 clearances, one goal) and brother Josh Daicos (28 touches) were busy, while Brody Mihocek kicked three goals and Bobby Hill two.
– With AAP
