Greater Western Sydney veteran Heath Shaw has labelled ongoing criticism of coach Leon Cameron “boring” in the wake of a shock defeat to Sydney that dealt the Giants’ AFL finals chances a huge blow.
The Giants, last year’s beaten grand finalists, have slumped to ninth on the ladder and require a dramatic turnaround in form if they are to challenge premiership contenders West Coast on Sunday.
GWS expect to have star pair Toby Greene (hamstring) and Phil Davis (knee) back from injury for the clash at Optus Stadium, where another loss would intensify the pressure on Cameron.
Although he is out of contract at the end of the year, the Giants have committed to the 47-year-old Cameron remaining at the helm for a further two seasons.
“It actually gets a bit boring, to be honest,” Shaw said of the Cameron criticism.
“When we lose it’s Leon’s fault and we’ve produced no effort and when we win we only win on talent.
“It’s been a trend for a fairly long time with this club.
“But over a long period of time we’ve built some success on our foundations and a game style that works, and players executing that game style.
“Anyone who watched the game last week would know that we (players) weren’t doing that.
“It wasn’t a performance you’ve seen very often from us.”
Shaw said the Giants had been dealt some “tough love” in their review of one of their worst displays, which captain Stephen Coniglio described as “hopeless” during a half-time interview.
“We understand that what we dished up last week wasn’t good enough,” Shaw said.
“It’s not the style that we play and it’s disappointing for us as a team.
“We’ll look to rectify that this week and change the way we go about it.”
The 34-year-old defender warned detractors against putting a line through the Giants as a flag threat in 2020.
“I haven’t wavered from where we’re at or how much I think we can win this premiership this year,” Shaw said.
“We’ve got a bit of hard work to do in the meantime to get ourselves in a position to play finals and then go from there.
“It’s a unique year, anything can happen, so don’t write off the Giants just yet.”