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Find your Sport Nation frequencyJonathan Brown’s smokey for the 2025 AFL flag
Nicholas Quinlan • July 18th, 2025 4:00 pm
Brisbane Lions legend Jonathan Brown admitted he would not be surprised if the GWS Giants end up winning their first premiership in 2025.
The big call comes following Thursday night’s 48-point win over Essendon.
After a slow start, the Giants would eventually get moving in the second quarter to run out comfortable winners against the Bombers at Marvel Stadium on Thursday.
The win sees the Giants extend their winning streak to five games and boost their percentage by three per cent to 116, helping increase their chance of making finals for a third consecutive season.
While Brown acknowledges that the last two premiers - Brisbane and Collingwood - are rightful favourites, he believes that GWS are a smokey chance to win the flag.
“To be honest, they’re my smokey for the comp,” Brown said on SEN 1170 Breakfast.
“They probably should have won it last year, probably should have won it the year before as well.
“They were clearly beating Sydney and Brisbane comfortably last year in the finals before they collapsed.
“They always make their surge late in the year. They play a really dangerous brand of football; they’ve got a lot of star players on the field.
“So, I wouldn’t be surprised at the end of the year if the Giants are holding up the cup.
“Brisbane and Collingwood are probably in that top deck of favouritism at the moment.
“But they are going to be really dangerous, especially when little Brent Daniels comes back into the line-up.
“So, they’re building momentum and with momentum comes belief.”
It’s not the first time that the Giants under coach Adam Kingsley have built an impressive win streak towards the back end of the season.
In 2024, they won seven of their last eight games to go from outside the eight to finish in the top four for the first time since 2017.
And in 2023, they won nine of their last 11 games as the Orange Tsunami was reborn to help lead the Giants to a surprise preliminary final appearance after sitting as low as 15th on the ladder.
The Giants still have to face fellow top-eight sides in the Western Bulldogs and Gold Coast Suns before they conclude the season.
But beyond that, they will be favoured to win their remaining clashes against North Melbourne, St Kilda and cross-town rivals Sydney, whom they play next week at ENGIE Stadium.
