THE LAST time Greater Western Sydney played at its Engie Stadium home, it kicked goals from every angle to overrun Gold Coast in a final quarter demolition.
Jake Stringer kicked one from the right forward pocket, then the left forward pocket. Toby Greene snapped around his body on the run from 45m. Callum Brown slotted a tricky set shot from just inside 50.
They won by seven points, kicking 16.10 (106) to the Suns' 14.15 (99).
"GWS are incredibly accurate here, and for whatever reason, opposing sides aren't," was the lament that day of Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick in his post-match press conference.
Hardwick had done his homework, going so far as to highlight that fact to his team in the lead-up to the contest.
The accuracy is almost hard to account for.
The previous match in western Sydney was similar, with the Giants kicking 12.8 (80) to Richmond's 10.17 (77).
Even the Opening Round flogging of Collingwood was 15.14 (104) to a wasteful 6.16 (52).
Statistics provided by Champion Data show no team has a goalkicking advantage on its home patch quite like the Giants.
Not only is Adam Kingsley's team – and Leon Cameron's before it – deadly around goals at home, opposing teams are quite the opposite.
For the past four seasons, the Giants have an accuracy rate of 54 per cent at home, while the opposition convert at just 43 per cent at Engie Stadium.
The League average in that time is 49 per cent, meaning the Giants at home are well above AFL average, while their opponents are well below it.
| ACCURACY AT ENGIE STADIUM | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TEAM | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 |
| Greater Western Sydney |
53% |
54% |
52% |
57% |
| Away team |
37% |
44% |
43% |
49% |
| AFL average (all venues) |
48% |
50% |
48% |
49% |
And this is no one-year outlier skewing the numbers.
The Giants are at least eight per cent more accurate than their opponents at Engie Stadium each season, kicking an average of three more goals a game from the same number of attempts.
It has converted directly to wins. Last season, they beat both the Magpies and Suns by in excess of 30 points despite having less shots at goal each time.
No other team in the AFL has the same discrepancy at their home venue, although some are close.
From a much smaller sample of games, Hawthorn in Launceston (50 per cent for themselves to 42 per cent for the opposition), Gold Coast in Darwin (55 to 48) and the Western Bulldogs in Ballarat (47 to 41) all have a nice buffer.
Unfortunately for the Giants, the number of games they play at Homebush each season is limited by the Easter Show, but the 18-10 record in that period is still a nice win-loss mark.
Geelong will visit next for Saturday's twilight fixture, and the Cats have been warned; take your chances, because you can be certain the Giants will.