The Greater Western Sydney GIANTS will take on then Eastlake Demons in the young club’s first ever finals series at 2pm this Sunday September 4 at Manuka Oval.

A number of GIANTS Academy players will be given the opportunity to step up in the NEAFL finals with a number of listed players sidelined with injury after a massive 2011 season.

Ahead of their NEAFL finals debut, GIANTS reporter Beck Mills caught up with Head Coach Kevin Sheedy to find out how the club is preparing for the upcoming match and what lessons his young squad can take from 2011.

What do you think it means for the club to be in an NEAFL finals series in our first year?

I would have expected us to be in the finals.

With the talent of the boys that we’ve had throughout the year, they should be up there and have the opportunity to play finals.

We’ve lost a lot of players this year with interstate education, illness and injuries but that has given us the chance to play around 75 players which has been terrific.

What can the team take out of this year?

Firstly, they’ve gotten to know each other. They’ve moved away from home, had their eighteenth birthdays, gotten their drivers licenses, moved to a major city in Australia and travelled interstate every second weekend.

Without being here, a lot of these guys wouldn’t have done these things.

There have been a lot of life skills to learn and a lot of maturity that has come with that.

They’ve met new coaches. They’ve never known us as a group of coaches and have gotten to be a part of this club as it is forming.

They’ve been required to do a lot of things that none of these kids would have ever been asked or needed to do at sixteen or seventeen.

Obviously it’s been a massive year and we’ve lost a lot of players through injury towards the end of the season, is that something that the club is monitoring closely? 

Yes.

To be quite honest we’ve made sure that we haven’t damaged any of their bodies by playing them too often without a break.

Will these injuries give the younger Academy players an opportunity to step up in our first final? 

I think that’s the best thing about it. We don’t want a kid that we’ve missed from our zone to pop up in three or four year’s time.

We want to play those kids and we’ve had the chance to play them this year. We need to look at young players in our zone and we want to give them the confidence of knowing that we’re looking at them as well.

Head down to Manuka Oval on Sunday to see the GWS GIANTS in their first finals clash at 2pm.
 

Click here to chat LIVE during the match