At the end of last season, despite their players' improvement on the previous year in most facets, the GWS coaching staff put their heads together to address the performance area that more than any other was holding the team back.
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In 2012 and 2013 youth and inexperience could be blamed for the Giants' second-last ranking in winning contested ball. In 2014 there was slight improvement, coming in third last. In 2015 they finished at the bottom of the pile, even if they narrowed the gap, on average, against opponents.
This season something has clicked. After eight rounds the Giants are fifth in contested possession, ahead of Geelong, North Melbourne and West Coast, and with a differential of plus-16.8 per match, are second only to their opponents this week, the Western Bulldogs, described by GWS coach Leon Cameron as "contested ball machines".
"It's going to be a huge challenge for us next week, even though [contested possession] is a part of our game we've seriously improved – and we're really proud of that," he said.
The turnaround in the team's ability to win one-on-one battles across the ground can be attributed to several factors, including bigger bodies, wiser heads and the impact of skilled recruits. But the coaching staff can certainly take some credit.
"We talked about it a lot. We've spent a lot of time working on it. We knew it was an issue we had to address," foundation player-turned assistant coach Luke Power said.
"We've had some really good additions to our coaching staff, which helped sort it out. Amon Buchanan and Dean Brogan are the ones who set the program. But also having Lenny Hayes, who was a great contested ball player in his time, and also Brad Miller, who worked under Brendan McCartney at Melbourne, has been really good at teaching the skills of contested ball. It's been a really good mix with those coaches teaching our players the right way.
"It's such an important part of the game. If you can't big one-on-one contests – if you can't win the contested ball – it's going to be pretty hard for you because you're always going to be trying to win it back off the opposition."
Power said the addition of coaching know-how was matched by several players on the list "coming of age", growing physically and mentally, enabling them to activate the skills necessary to "win their share of the ball". Many of the Giants talented youngsters had been ball-winning midfielders in their junior years. But coming up against 10-year players in the AFL put them back in their place.
"We've focused a lot of time on training to improve in that area but obviously the development of players from age 22 to around 23, 24, is a massive step in the career of an elite footballer, not only in terms of being able to win the ball, but also in terms of consistency," he said.
"And our players have an amazing ability to take information on and improve quickly, which is a credit to them."
The Giants' more experienced players, including Phil Davis, Heath Shaw, Ryan Griffen and Steve Johnson, lead the way in contested ball. The opportunity for the others to test themselves against the best will be there at Spotless Stadium on Sunday.
"They're still the benchmark," Power said of the Bulldogs. "Brendan McCartney was a great teacher of the method of the contested ball and no doubt Luke Beveridge has taken it to another level. It's something we'll try to match them at this week."
