Harry Perryman was as frustrated as any Giant after the round 2 loss to Richmond, so he decided to do something about it.
The 23-year-old defender proceeded to tell his peers they weren’t playing as a team, something that grated on him, especially after watching reigning premier Melbourne thrive as a selfless unit.
More than 70 games into his AFL career, Perryman has found his voice in that setting.
“I was pretty disappointed after that loss,” he told News Corp.
“I think if we don’t challenge each other the way we should; we’re not going to get anywhere.
“I want the best for the team and to win games of footy. If I think I can say something that’s going to help the team; I’m more than happy to. That’s where we need to get to.”
The Giants have split their two games since Perryman’s frank comments, including a win over Gold Coast, to sit 1-3 through four rounds ahead of an MCG date with the Demons on Saturday night.
That is a daunting prospect, especially with co-captain Toby Greene still having one match to serve on his suspension, but Perryman’s seen improvement and can’t wait to lock horns with Melbourne.
He also knows that GWS won its past two meetings with the Demons at the home of football.
“Everyone likes playing against the best team in the competition and they’ve got some good players running around, so it’s a good test for us and all the boys are looking forward to it,” Perryman said.
“I look at them as the benchmark. I’ve watched them for the first four weeks and you can just see they all buy in as a system and as a unit, so it’s a great chance for us this week to see it first-hand.
“We love playing footy down there, at the MCG, so hopefully we can put in a good team effort.”
Perryman, whose long-time girlfriend Jamie-Lee Price plays netball for the Giants and Australia, wants to keep getting better as an individual, too.
He is well known as coach Leon Cameron’s Swiss Army knife but has settled into a defensive role this season.
Other than contracting Covid-19 across the New Year’s period – “it was probably a good thing, because it kept me off the beers for a few weeks” – Perryman enjoyed one of his best pre-seasons and feels as fit as ever.
But he always steers the conversation back to the team and is determined to help the Giants dig themselves out of their early season hole and return to the finals.
“We set ourselves up for a good year, had a good pre-season, then we’ve had a couple of disappointing weeks,” Perryman said.
“We want to improve on last year, otherwise we’re kind of kidding ourselves, but we’re not far away from seeing some results.
“We’ll have a couple of key players come back in over the next few weeks, butxjmtzyw we’ve got a young group and people forget about that a lot.”
Perryman won’t make it back to the family farm in Collingullie, near Wagga, for Easter but plans to go home after next week’s Friday night clash with St Kilda at Canberra’s Manuka Oval.
He won back-to-back senior premierships with the Collingullie Demons as a teenager in 2014 and 2015, alongside future Giants teammate and now Carlton midfielder Matt Kennedy.
Perryman’s three brothers remain in the Riverina town and the plan is for all four of them to be reunited more regularly in the future.
“They all help dad out on the farm and we run sheep, cattle and crops, so it’s pretty flat out,” he said.
“But I love the lifestyle back there and I can’t see myself doing anything else after footy.”
