AFL Odds: Cameron Wants Giant Strides
December 19th, 2014 by TJ DilferThe Giants won six games last season, and they wound up a couple of spots clear of the foot of the ladder. For the 2015 season, the AFL odds at the other end of that link will tell you that they’re a long outside chance to at odds of $101.00 to win the premiership, but a decent-looking $7.00 to sneak into the top eight come the final day of the regular season. It would be their first taste of finals footie, and there’s little doubt that their players – and their fans, of course – will be hungry for that success. But can they make the step up?
There were genuine signs in 2014. The current crop of GWS players are young, and they are showing real signs of improvement. There will have been few sweeter feelings in a lot of young Giants’ careers than the first day of the 2014 season, when they stunned neighbours Sydney Swans in the opening game. They posted a further five victories in the season, which must have felt like a very modest return, but four of those wins came in the last 11 games of the campaign. Those wins translate almost directly to good morale in the build-up to the 2015 season, and coach Leon Cameron clearly has ambitions for his young charges – he’s setting ‘no ceiling’ on his hopes for the coming campaign: ‘we only won six, and we need to better that. We’re a year older, we feel as though we’ve had a good trade period, we’re rapt with the draft … and I expect our third and fourth year players to make significant gains.’
Those gains would be more than welcome to Giants fans, that’s for sure – but Cameron’s ambitions extend beyond next year, and those of the supporters should, too: ‘I’d be disappointed if we didn’t make the finals in the next two years, and our players would be as well. I don’t put a ceiling on any season. If we can make some significant ground in areas we need to – defensively and probably more contested ball – then who knows what can happen? For us to back up week-in, week-out is a big challenge, but one we think we can do next year.’ So whatever you think of the ambitions or the progress of Cameron’s GWS side in 2015, you know they’ll be featuring in the AFL odds for the season, and they might be worth a look for some value…
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