The 'electric' rookie giving GWS a Giant headache after Anzac Day triumph

"He looked electric," GWS Giants coach Adam Kingsley said. "It looked like, every time he was near the ball, something was going to happen."

Which is why Kingsley now has a headache to contend with after the Giants ran out convincing 54-point winners over the Brisbane Lions at a sold-out Manuka Oval on Anzac Day.

Because debutant Darcy Jones kicked two goals in the 17.11 (113) to 8.11 (59) drubbing after being called into the side with Toby Greene suspended for a week.

Jake Riccardi and Callum Brown kicked three goals apiece as the Giants - inspired by a starring performance from midfielder Tom Green and his game-high 37 disposals - ran rampant in the second half in front of 13,080 people in Canberra.

Now Kingsley has to find a way to wedge Greene, Sam Taylor and Stephen Coniglio back into his match day squad for a Sydney derby with all three expected to return next week.

"There will be [selection headaches]. That's the nature of a fit team who is performing well. We want to have those issues, if you want to call it that, selection issues where good players are missing out," Kingsley said.

"Not only does that put pressure on players in the team, it also inspires guys out of the team [to think] 'hey, there's opportunity here, we can potentially get in, we need to play well, we know the coach is going to pick us and we need to be ready to go at any moment'.

"I think [Jones] showed really good composure for a guy playing his first game. He played half a VFL game last year and did his knee, he's played - I can guess - four games this year. It's not a lot of footy.

"He's got real class, he's got speed as we saw, he's very skilful. I was really pleased for him. It's been a challenging 12 months, so for him to break his way into the team through playing well in the twos, and then having an impact tonight, really pleased for him."

The Giants led by just eight points at the half-time break before breaking the game open in the second half, with a scintillating third quarter from Green and the famed orange tsunami coming out of the back half proving near impossible to stop.

Brisbane coach Chris Fagan labelled the second half "well below par" - but as for why it transpired that way?

"I don't really know the answer at this point in time. We have no excuses. We just didn't work as hard as they did," Fagan said.

"We'll have a talk about it, definitely, we'll look at the vision of it on Monday. One thing I do know, it sounds all like doom and gloom, but this group has been so good for the last five years. I admire them and respect them for the efforts they've been able to put in over the last five seasons.

"I'm not going to sit here and bag the team for the way they performed tonight. I'm in it with them, the way out of it is together. That was how we became a good team in the first place.

"In my first couple of years with them as coach, we won five games in each of the two years. We learnt from our mistakes, we stuck together, and we became a good team. The way out of the situation at the moment is that exact same way.

"We can play a lot better than that, we know that. We beat Melbourne two weeks ago at the MCG. Confidence is a quirky thing in sport, it comes and goes. I've got to help those boys find their confidence again."

Pressure? "Pressure is a Messerschmitt up your arse, playing cricket is not", iconic Australian all-rounder Keith Miller once told us.

Miller knows better than most. Once a St Kilda star who played for the Victorian state team before turning to cricket, he served for the Royal Australian Air Force during World War II.

So on a day like this, when eyeballs across the nation shift from dawn services and two-up to packed out football stadiums, you get a chance to reflect on what pressure really is.

If you're the GWS Giants, it's not taking down the Brisbane Lions 17.11 (113) to 8.11 (59) in front 13,080 at Manuka Oval on Anzac Day.

It's not trying to overturn a run of six consecutive losses when Toby Greene isn't in the line-up, even if you've lost nine of your past 10 games without the man midfielder Tom Green calls the best in the AFL. It's not even Darcy Jones trying to fill some massive boots on debut.

Oh, and the Giants were also without Stephen Coniglio and Sam Taylor, who both failed to finish the club's last start in Canberra a fortnight ago.

Those fall under a different category of pressure. But when it mattered, the Giants stood tall as Jake Riccardi and Callum Brown kicked three goals apiece.

The initial chance to reflect came when some 13,000 people in Canberra fell silent during the Last Post. The first player many looked for was Eric Hipwood.

The Brisbane forward carries the first name of his grandfather Eric Tregear, who served during World War II and was captured as a prisoner of war for four years. Hipwood's teammate Noah Answerth's grandather Mervyn George Baker served in Papua New Guinea.

Giants star Green's father Richard has participated in reconstruction efforts in Timor-Leste and the Middle East, and drought relief works in Papua New Guinea.

Come the opening bounce, the challenge is to play the game - not the occasion.

The Giants started by doing just that, making a last start loss to Carlton seem like something of a reality check after a previously undefeated start to the season. If it wasn't Green from outside the 50 metre arc, it was 20-year-old debutant Jones' electric pace lighting up the Manuka Oval turf with a goal on debut.

Green was immense. The Canberra product led all players for contested possessions (16), score involvements (9), and disposals (37) and was the second-ranked Giant for both pressure and clearances.

Charlie Cameron booted two goals in the opening term - perhaps enough to send a shiver down the spines of Giants fans after he kicked seven against them on this ground last year - before Cam Rayner came to life in the second.

Just eight points separated the two sides at the main break but some wondered if the Giants would be able to hold on without three key players against a side led by two-time Brownlow Medallist Lachie Neale.

There would be no concern as the hosts booted five goals to nil in the third term to open up a 38-point margin against a Lions side left to rue missed opportunities. Only once this season had Brisbane finished a game with more goals than behinds. The payoff? A round five win over Melbourne.

The Lions failed to stem the bleeding as GWS started to channel the Harlem Globetrotters and a largely pro-Giants crowd went home happy.

AT A GLANCE

GWS GIANTS 4.3 8.4 13.6 17.11 (113)

BRISBANE LIONS 2.4 6.8 6.10 8.11 (59)

GWS goals: Jake Riccardi 3, Callum Brown 3, Harry Perryman 2, Harvey Thomas 2, Darcy Jones 2, Tom Green, Xavier O'Halloran, Josh Kelly, Aaron Cadman, Jesse Hogan

Brisbane goals: Charlie Cameron 2, Cam Rayner 2, Lincoln McCarthy, Kai Lohmann, Jaspa Fletcher, Darcy Fort