You can tell a lot about a house by looking at its garden, and Connor Idun says the view from the kitchen window at Chez Greater Western Sydney isn’t pretty.
While Giants coach Adam Kingsley spoke of his team’s lower goal ratio after the loss to Adelaide at the weekend, they also conceded 102 and 94 goals in the last two games.
Given the power of Carlton’s attack and the dual threat of the Blues’ key forwards Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay, Idun and the rest of the GWS defence will need to give their all at home on Saturday night.
“We are definitely not happy about conceding so many points,” said Idun.
“We’re not keeping our backyard clean right now as far as fighting life and death, winning our competitions and things like that.
“If you don’t defend properly, your offense suffers.”
When asked about the possibility of turning around the defensive work, Idun said: “There is no better opportunity, and that against probably the best attacking line in the competition – and above all against the two best key players (strikers) in the competition.”
“We’re going to take this fight pretty personally and we need an answer for what we did last week.
“We play a bit too much one-on-one, we have to support each other in the air.”
Idun can play big or small, meaning he could go to any of the Carlton forwards as needed during the game.
He calls himself a football expert and usually watches five games a weekend so he knows what to expect.
“I like to study every striker and that is important because we want to be a system defense,” he said.
“Maybe I’ll dedicate a few minutes to each player… that’s also important in terms of supporting each other.”
“It’s scary to see how much momentum (Carlton) can build up pretty quickly.
“They are an overpowering team and you can’t react better against such a team.”
“I am proud to be able to play against any type of striker.”
The unexpected loss to the Crows dropped GWS out of the top eight and Idun said the Giants are not sticking with what they know works.
“Our tsunami, as we like to call it, is defensive and offensive,” he said.
“When our pressure drops, our offense also drops.
“We have to deal better with the opponent’s dynamics. Other teams have run-ons far too often.
“Adelaide have scored seven goals in a row, which is really embarrassing.
“We have to keep working, gather our courage and start winning the competition.”