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Kevin Sheedy is looking forward to the challenge of pitting his wits against a new generation of AFL coaches and has rejected the bookies prediction his side will lose their first game by 100 points.
The Greater Western Sydney Giants’ mentor has returned to the coaching fray after finishing a 27-season tenure at Essendon in 2007.
“There’s 11 new coaches come into the AFL in the last two years and I’ve never coached against them so there’s that challenge from my own point of view,” Sheedy said on Wednesday.
“Since I finished coaching at Essendon, there would have been about 400 players that have been drafted.
“You’ve got to actually quickly get your thinking capacity about their talents and their abilities and where they are in their career, whether they are first year, second year, third year or fourth year players, so I’ve got my own challenges there.
“Then so have the other coaches, because they’ve never coached against me and I’ve got 700-odd games up ahead of them, so we’ll see who wins in the end.”
One set of numbers that hasn’t impressed Sheedy is the three-figure start some of the bookies are giving his side for their first AFL game against Sydney on Saturday week.
‘Wow that’s a big score, to get outscored by, 100 points, who was that mathematician?,” Sheedy said.
“Just imagine if we didn’t get beat by 100 points.
“We can break a century. I don’t know what they (the bookies) allowed the Gold Coast Suns to get beaten by (in their first AFL match) last year.
“I can look that up, but I don’t think we’ll get beaten by a lot.”
Sheedy doubted the Swans would suffer from complacency against his team.
“They have been racking up finals performances in the last decade. They’ve been a terrific hallmark sort of club,” Sheedy said.
“In the test of time in the last decade, everyone knows Sydney are a damn good club, but we’re just going to have to wreck that plan over the next five years.”
Sheedy cheekily suggested Sydney might find the Giants’ training base in Blacktown in less than pristine condition for the Swans’ trial against Gold Coast on Saturday.
“We’ve got little trip wires here, we’ve got a couple of hand grenades and landmines and we’re just banking on four of five injuries,” Sheedy joked.
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