GWS scrape home against Fremantle in AFL

Greater Western Sydney have come from behind to score their first win in five AFL games, beating Fremantle by 12 points at Spotless Stadium.

Lachie Whitfield of the Giants celebrates a goal

GWS have come from behind to score their first win in five AFL matches, beating Fremantle. (AAP)

Greater Western Sydney coach Leon Cameron is confident his club can find the extra 20 per cent he feels they need to compete with the other AFL heavyweights, after the giants had scrapped their way to an ugly 12-point home win over Fremantle.

Down by 15 points at the final change, the Giants stormed home, kicking 5.9 to 2.0 in the last term to secure a 13.20 (98) to 13.8 (86) victory on Saturday at Spotless Stadium.

GWS kicked the first four goals of the final quarter but Fremantle notched the next two before a Josh Kelly major with two minutes to go condemned the Dockers to an eighth loss in their past nine games.

The unconvincing performance lifted GWS temporarily up to second on the ladder and ended a winless streak spanning four games.

Cameron said the past few weeks had knocked the confidence of his players and they struggled on Saturday with the fundamentals, kicking and handling poorly until the final quarter.

The Giants' last four games are all against other finals aspirants, starting in Canberra next Saturday against Melbourne.

Asked how much improvement GWS had in them, Cameron said: "It's the million dollar question.

"To compete with Adelaide, Geelong, Port, Richmond, Melbourne and so on, it's hard to put a percentage on it, but let's just say 20 per cent.

"If we're going 80 per cent at the moment, we need to improve 20 per cent to compete with them because, if we don't, then we'll lose by a three or four-goal margin. That's what we've been doing the last few weeks.

"I'm really confident we can get there, absolutely really confident we can find that 20 per cent we're looking for."

The Giants led by just two points at the first break and by up to 15 in the second.

But Fremantle slammed on three of the last four goals of the quarter to trail by just one at the long break.

They looked poised to spring a massive upset after kicking five goals to two in the third quarter.

But in the final term, dynamic running from Dylan Shiel, excellent clearance work from the returning Stephen Coniglio and strong ruck work efforts from Dawson Simpson gave the Giants the edge.

"The first three quarters, we clearly improved (from last week) - I thought our competition, the way we set the field up and moved the ball and defended pretty well," Dockers' coach Ross Lyon said.

"At three-quarter time, I thought we ticked all those boxes. In the last quarter, we didn't get it done around the ball, in particular the centre square bounces."

Shiel doubled his possession tally in the final quarter, finishing with 26 just one behind Kelly and Coniglio.

Midfield stars Nat Fyfe and Lachie Neale logged 31 and 30 touches respectively for Fremantle and Shane Kersten kicked three first-half goals.

Defender Connor Blakely suffered a subluxed shoulder and was forced off in the second quarter after initially getting injured in the first.

GWS also finished a man down when midfielder Will Setterfield was forced off with concussion in the second half.


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Source: AAP



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