- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
On Saturday night in Blacktown, another piece will fall into place for the AFL’s Greater Western Sydney puzzle. The Giants will compete against another club for the first time in 2012.
There’ll be supergoals and 20-minute halves, but the semblance of an AFL match when they tackle Collingwood and Western Bulldogs.
When the ball is bounced on the weekend, the stand-alone start to GWS’s inaugural season will be just five weeks away.
While much is falling into place for the March 24 game against Sydney, coach Kevin Sheedy understands there’s still a major sense of the unknown for many – both outside and inside the club.
Israel Folau will be most scrutinised, but he’s one of 12 in the Giants’ 34-man squad who have never played in the AFL’s pre-season competition.
Sheedy wants to use the next four weeks to find out as much as possible about the rawest of his charges.
“We’ll play (all) 34 (on Saturday night),” Sheedy said after GWS’s training run on Friday.
“Not all of our senior players are going to play … and that’s good.
“It gives (ruckmen) Tom Downie and Andrew Phillips a run, an opportunity because Dean Brogan’s out.
“We’ll be finding out whether Jeremy Cameron is going to be very good, excellent or a superstar – or Dylan Shiel, Adam Treloar and Steve (Coniglio) .. all those boys.
“I just want to play all the kids – as many as I can.”
Sheedy’s expectations for the weekend were upbeat.
“I think we’ll actually play pretty well. We’re going to annoy people.
“(The pre-season competition is about) confidence for these young players and you never know. We might sing the (team) song tomorrow night.”
Steve Coniglio suspected a few of the club’s lesser lights would shine in their first hit-out.
“There’s going to be players that are going to pop out of nowhere, and I think that’s the most exciting thing,” Coniglio said.
“Nobody really knows a lot about our players but, over the next few weeks, we’ll soon find out.”
With Jonathon Patton, No.1 pick of last year’s draft, still recovering from knee surgery, No.2 selection Coniglio will capture a lot more interest.
The talented midfielder, who played in the WAFL with Swan Districts in 2010-11, feels no pressure.
He’s aware of the low expectations of pundits and bookmakers – who don’t expect GWS to win a single game this year – but says the young squad is happy to use it as motivation.
“We’re not going to go into the game tomorrow night and not want to win the game,” he said.
“I think that’s the key with the young players that we have – we don’t really like losing.
“The odds for us this year aren’t that good, but I think that incites those young players to really put our name forward and take this team forward for the next couple of years.”
Who’s in your ultimate team? Pick the best team and compete with other fans for daily prizes on Draftstars. For the best odds on the game try out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Think. Is this a bet you really want to place? Set a deposit limit.