GWS will look to ramp up their turnover game as they seek to add the last ingredients necessary to deliver them a maiden AFL premiership.
A first grand final appearance last year continued the upward trend for the competition’s youngest club, who have made finals for the last four years.
The club hasn’t dwelt on the humbling 89-point hammering Richmond dished out to them in the 2019 season decider.
“Our review was quick and we’ve moved on, and to be quite frank we haven’t referred to it much at all really,” GWS coach Leon Cameron insisted.
The Giants have a star-studded roster which includes a strong contingent of foundation players, a handful of valued veterans recruited from other clubs, emerging stars and more high draft picks from the last couple of years.
A 94-point win over Sydney in their first pre-season game without close to half of their top 22 underlined the Giants’ depth.
The recruitment of ruckman Sam Jacobs to assist fellow veteran Shane Mumford and highly-rated first-round picks Lachie Ash and Tom Green add even more quality to the list that served GWS so well last year.
Cameron acknowledged there are areas GWS must improve in if they are to take the final steps to winning a first flag.
“Turning over the ball a lot closer to goal and scoring from turnovers is something that clearly we need to do better at, because there’s probably, six. seven, eight sides out there that are doing that a bit better,” Cameron said.
Cameron gave short shrift to the suggestion from some pundits that their style is unsustainable in finals.
“It doesn’t worry me at all, because if you’re confident within your four walls then it’s like anything, you’ve got to back yourself in,” Cameron said
“We’re confident that we’ve got the ability to play a style that stacks up in finals footy.
“Yes, we put our hand up, we needed to be better in the grand final, but we’ve also played some good tough footy over the last four years in finals.”
High injury tolls have hurt the Giants over each of the last three seasons and the club will be hoping the shoulder injury suffered by 2019 best and fairest winner Tim Taranto in their first pre-season game doesn’t sideline him for an extended period.
Of their other leading players, Callan Ward is expected to return from a knee reconstruction in the first few rounds.
Ward and key defender Phil Davis have stepped aside from their co-captaincy roles, with fellow foundation player Stephen Coniglio the sole skipper for the 2020 campaign.
“They basically carried the club for those (first) four years when we were in our infant stage,” Cameron said of Ward and Davis.
“They know that it’s just perfect timing to have Stephen come and stamp his mantra on the whole footy club.”
The versatility of some of the Giants biggest stars, including Coniglio, is a weapon Cameron fully intends to utilise.
The captain and Toby Greene can influence matches in both midfield and forward roles, Lachie Whitfield can shuttle between defensive midfield and forward assignments and Josh Kelly can damage opposing teams with his inside and outside work.
The annual external scrutiny over the club’s re-signing of key players will focus this year on star forward Jeremy Cameron, with Zac Williams also yet to commit to the club beyond 2020.
“That speculation we’ve seen in the past grows legs, but the majority of the time it sort of comes out at the end that our boys stay for the right reasons,” Leon Cameron said.