GWS has turned the race for the 2016 AFL premiership on its head with an outstanding debut finals performance and a 36-point win over the Sydney Swans.

The Giants made a mockery of the value of finals experience as their band of thrilling young footballers seemingly all came of age at once, beating minor premier Sydney at its own game to seal a home preliminary final.

Jeremy Cameron kicked four goals, including three in a game-breaking third-quarter burst, while midfielders Stephen Coniglio, Lachie Whitfield and Josh Kelly took their more experienced opponents to task.

The Giants held star Swan Lance Franklin goalless, and a raft of injuries — including some heavy head knocks to Josh Kennedy and Kurt Tippett, and a likely season-ending hamstring strain to Rising Star Callum Mills — makes next week’s semi-final anything but a certain win.

What turned into a brutally physical match began rather differently. The first 11 minutes of the match went by goalless, not in a contested scrap, but in an end-to-end, flowing opening to the match.

Franklin spent time up the ground and turned provider for Sydney’s first two goals, both to Tom Papley, before Cameron finally got GWS on the board more than 17 minutes in.

It was not until Johnson made his mark on Kennedy that the tempo really raised. An age-old finals tactic, Johnson’s seemingly deliberate attack on the opposition’s key midfielder could easily have backfired on the finals-fresh Giants.

Instead, it galvanised the young team who very quickly proved it was not to be pushed around by a club that has forged its reputation upon being the physical bullies of the league.

Rory Lobb of the Giants under pressure from Callum Mills. Photo: AAP

The Giants dominated extended periods of the match but for a while failed to make that count on the scoreboard — when Toby Greene sent one out on the full eight minutes into the third term, the Giants had kicked 5.11 to Sydney’s 5.8.

It took more than 17 minutes of the third quarter for a goal to be kicked, and the game sat poised for a decisive moment. It would come when Isaac Heeney had a very strong case for mark 40 metres from goal turned down by the umpire.

Within an instant, the ball was up the Giants’ end with Cameron who would kickstart an explosive run of three goals in five minutes to break the game open.

Cameron’s second of the streak came from a sharp intercept from a Ben McGlynn kick, the third after Dane Rampe was somewhat controversially pinged for holding the ball despite Cameron himself doing most of the holding.

McGlynn would make amends with a goal back, but the Giants sniffed blood. Heeney’s costly slip inside defensive 50 opened the door for Tom Scully, who burst through it to give the Giants a 21-point three-quarter-time lead.

The first goal of the last quarter was likely to prove decisive, and so it proved when Stephen Coniglio slotted his first midway through the final term. Further goals to Scully and Callan Ward inflated the margin, but the game had long been settled.

The Swans had been battered, bruised and soundly beaten. The Giants had given an ominous glimpse into their dominant future, one that might be upon us sooner than expected.

– ABC