BY anyone’s language it’s been a tough season for the Western Jets. A 0-10 start tells you as much, but for all that disappointment the spirit has never been wanting.
Nathan Giles, whose best-on-ground performance spearheaded the Jets’ drought-breakings win, noted the players remained positive throughout.
Giles, one of the Jets’ 19-year-old players, said training had been as good as it had been during coach Steve Kretiuk’s three years as coach.
“The spirits are high. We’re not getting our heads down, we’re still keeping our heads up,” Giles said.
“Now that we have a win under our belt, we’re looking to keep that going for the rest of the year. We have a tough game against Geelong on Saturday, but I think we’re in for a good show if we did what we did last week.”
Kretiuk said the Jets were able to put into practice what they had been building up to over the previous month.
Early in the season, the Jets decided to utilise Giles height – 197 cm – in a key defensive position and with the team under constant barrage there was a belief that he’d gone into his shell.
About one month ago, Kretiuk and his coaching staff decided to rotate Giles more through the ruck, a decision that reaped rewards against Murray Bushrangers.
“We’ve thrown him around a bit trying to find a position for him from full back to centre half forward and centre half back. We bit the bullet and checked him in the ruck,” Kretiuk said.
“He’s just so mobile and agile that I think we may have limited what he’s really good at. For his size he’s really agile, he’s a good kick and a good mark.
“Sometimes when you are playing a key position defensive position you can become a bit negative in the way you play, especially when the opposition is getting 20-30 more inside 50s than us.
“As a defender you tend to go into your shell a bit.”
Not only did Giles direct 15-hit outs against the Bushrangers, but he gathered 20 possessions, took eight marks, kicked four goals and laid three tackles to earn the maximum votes in the TAC Cup Coaches award.
Giles, who owns an 11 minute time for a three kilometre run, has welcomed the freedom to use one of his assets.
“Just getting around in the ruck, I can usually out run most of my opponents and I just try to use that as one of my strengths,” Giles said.
He capped a memorable game with a four goal haul, double his previous highest goal tally.
“I had some good kicks coming so that helps. Kicking a bag is pretty good,” Giles said.
And, doing so in a winning team is even better.
Last Modified on 18/08/2010 11:52