Greater Western Sydney Giants coach Leon Cameron couldn't be prouder of his team after they overcame adversity to defeat the Western Bulldogs on Sunday night - just don't consider them premiership fancies just yet.
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The Giants moved above Sydney into third with the 25-point win, their sixth victory in a row and one that firms their top four chances, even if the coach isn't getting carried away with the impressive run.
"It is a really good win - a great win - and we're really happy to win in front of our home crowd where the noise is great, but to put it in perspective, we're 7-2 and it's only the first one ticked off in a really tough month," he said after the match.
"We go against Adelaide next Saturday night and it will be really hard there. It's pleasing you learn to win a different way, not kicking 18 or 20 goals, and working our way through the game."
But Cameron does concede his side are one of many potential candidates in what looms as the most open flag race in recent decades.
"I think it's fantastic - and I said on Friday there's probably eight sides that can win the grand final, and how good is that. It's just the unknown," he said. "But I think we have a tendency to look at the early results and we wipe sides out early. It's very dangerous. Sides like Richmond and Collingwood are going to get going now.
"In round 11, there are nine or ten sides who can beat anyone on any given day. And if you're in the right spot at the right time, who knows."
Describing the victory as a "good, gutsy win", Cameron said his players held up remarkably well despite losing Matt Buntine to concussion and Tim Mohr to a hamstring strain inside the opening 30 minutes.
"Losing players early in the game always makes it that bit tougher - and we seem to have a lack of losing key defenders in the last few years," he said. "[The injuries] are disappointing but the guys had to dig in and play a bit smarter. We're really pleased that Jon Patton gave us a different look at his game, playing a key position role in defence.
However, the Giants' coach admitted his side won't want to lose any more defenders going forward.
"To have Mohr, [Caleb] Marchbank, [Phil] Davis and [Aidan] Corr [sidelined], you can't [take more injuries]." he said. "You don't look at your list and think you'll need six key defenders. You expect to be ok with four. We're expecting Phil to get up for next week and we'll see how Matty Buntine is."
Cameron said he didn't see the hit on Buntine by Lin Jong, which incurred a report for the Bulldogs' midfielder for forceful front-on contact and the coach said he wouldn't take any risks.
"He's had a few head knocks in the past," Cameron noted. "So we've got to make sure we look after him."
Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge admitted it was a tough day against a team that was clearly in red-hot form.
"We had to try a lot of things to stop their momentum but at no stage could we get any momentum on the scoreboard to really threaten them," he said. "There's no doubt [our] younger players were were a little bit inexperienced will need a bit of time to settle in. We were a bit messy with the ball and their star quality forwards, particularly Jeremy Cameron [five goals], got the better of us."
