The GIANTS play Carlton at Etihad Stadium on Saturday with Sheedy renewing his rivalry with Blues coach Mick Malthouse.

The pair will be coaching against each other for the 47th time at VFL/AFL level, Sheedy having won 27 of these contests.

Saturday will be the first and last time the pair coach against each other at Etihad Stadium.

Of the combined 1339 AFL/VFL games coached between them, Malthouse has narrowly taken the upper hand with 391 wins, leading Sheedy by three (388), but the four flags won at Essendon sees Sheedy lead the premiership count four to three.

“Mick and I have been around for a while, he had a holiday last year working in the media now he’s back in full throttle.

“I’m really looking forward to going down and playing against Carlton. We played really well in the first half against them there last year and then Setanta (O’hAilpin) got injured and that really threw our team out. Then there was another injury during the game that we had to cope with and they ended up getting up and beating us.

“We locked Essendon down, they never said boo until the last quarter last time we were at Etihad."

Given the age and in-experience of his side, Sheedy says it is the coach’s responsibility to carefully manage their young list and keep in mind the long-term benefit.  

“We’ll make about three or four changes this week to freshen the team up.

“I’m going to keep playing new players. Buntine will stay in this week, Curtly Hampton we’ll play him again this week and you’ll see at the end of the day that most of our boys will come through with about 25-35 games by the end of the season.

“That’s what this position as the head coach of this club is, and I need to make sure the head coach doesn’t wobble, play these kids and cop the penalty in the early years of this club because the penalty will change eventually into success.”