‘I was pretty cooked after it’: Why Greene’s not keen to repeat Papley scuffle
Three days after their agonising six-point qualifying final loss to the Swans, Giants captain Toby Greene was more than ready to move on to the next task at hand: a resurgent Brisbane in a semi-final at Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday.
Greene was at the centre of the action at the SCG when he scuffled with Swans small forward Tom Papley, triggering a melee at the end of the first quarter. On the field, it seems Greene is incapable of backing down from a confrontation. Off it, he opted for diplomacy.
“He’s a good man, Pap,” Greene said. “I just walked up to him and it started from there, so there wasn’t much to it. I’ll cop the fine and move on.”
When asked about the Giants head of football Jason McCartney making contact with Papley as the player walked to the Swans huddle, Greene maintained he hadn’t seen the incident but said he would prefer to avoid similar energy-sapping confrontations against the Lions.
“I actually haven’t even seen it,” Greene said. “I mean, it is what it is, I think it’ll just get dealt with and move on.
“But to be honest, I haven’t actually seen it, I won’t be doing that [scuffle] again either, I was pretty cooked after it.”
Toby Greene leads the Giants onto the field at the SCG on Saturday.Credit: Getty Images
In the first week of finals, the Sydney derby was easily the pick of the bunch – but the thrilling spectacle meant little to Greene and his teammates as they sat devastated in the bowels of SCG after the game.
“I was shattered Saturday night after the game,” Greene said. “By all reports it was a good spectacle, but it doesn’t mean much to us. We desperately wanted to win and it didn’t go our way. But we’ve got to move on pretty quick.”
Greene’s unique ability to turn finals in the Giants’ favour – particularly against the Swans, having driven his team to September victories in 2016, 2018 and 2021 – is well-documented. Last Saturday, Greene managed only two behinds.
On Tuesday, at the training session in front of Giants fans, Greene focused on his goal-kicking, well aware of the need to step up with majors against a talented Brisbane team on Saturday.
“It’s something I work on all the time,” Greene said. “I was super flat missing those goals, especially when we could have gone up by a bit, and we probably missed a couple of easy set shots as well.
“But that’s footy, and that’s why you practise it every week, and I pride myself on putting in time and effort into getting better.
“So it’s never something I take for granted, getting shots on goal. I want to make the most of them, and hopefully I can [against Brisbane].”
Greene and his teammates have moved on from the heartbreak of the SCG, with their focus now solely on Brisbane and threats in the shape of Dayne Zorko, Hugh McCluggage and Lachie Neale.
The Giants will enjoy the home comforts of Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday night and Greene is enjoying the rare luxury of consecutive weeks of finals football at home in Sydney.
“It’s good playing two weeks [of finals] in a row in Sydney,” he said. “You feel like you can run on top of the world. We don’t do it a whole heap. It’s good for the body, good for the mind.
“You freshen up, and we’ll be ready to go. The crowd was electric on Saturday and hopefully, we get the same thing again on Saturday night.”
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