GIANTS coach Adam Kingsley spent most of the fortnight build-up to the elimination final preparing to face St Kilda without Sam Taylor or Toby Bedford, but it was Stephen Coniglio who missed Saturday's win at the MCG. 

The GIANTS qualified for September by defeating Carlton at Marvel Stadium on the final Sunday of the home and away season in Coniglio's 200th game, but the West Australian was withdrawn on Saturday morning due to an eye injury he sustained on the track ahead of the game. 

Kingsley said the 29-year-old will return for next weekend's clash against the loser of the qualifying final between Brisbane and Port Adelaide, but was still struggling with blurred vision when he was ruled out earlier in the day.

"Main training on Thursday he got a knock in the eye when a ball hit him in the eye. Didn't think anything at the time. Didn't have any eye issues, but this morning he flagged he had blurred vision from that knock," Kingsley said after the 24-point win on Saturday.

"Our doc checked him out and did the full concussion test to make sure everything was A-OK. It was blurred vision, so we didn't want to risk it. Playing against the Saints we knew it was going to be a high contest team, we didn't want him to get caught by surprise with a lack of peripheral vision."

All-Australian key defender Sam Taylor won the race against the clock to recover from the hamstring he strained against Essendon in round 23, before performing a crucial role on Max King, who kicked three goals but could have inflicted more damage if not for the West Australian.

"I must say earlier in the week, I wasn't thinking of playing him," Kingsley said.

"Then I had a chat with him during the week and he sounded really confident. The high performance staff did a great job preparing him to play. He got through the last session of the week without any issues, no soreness, work up the next morning with no soreness. It's a big game, we needed to win it, so we took the risk."

Kingsley and the match committee at GIANTS headquarters prepared to play without Bedford after the small forward was hit with a one-game ban for a dangerous tackle that was upheld at the AFL Tribunal before being overturned at the AFL Appeals Board on Thursday afternoon.

While Tom Green, Lachie Whitfield, Lachie Ash and Josh Kelly amassed plenty of the ball around the ground, Bedford had a massive impact in the front half, kicking two goals from seven score involvements and 16 touches in another performance that shows just how shrewd that piece of list management was last October.

"He is obviously a really important player for us. He trained and prepared as though he was playing. We probably weren't expecting that to be fair. We were planning to not have him, but hoping that we did," he said.

"He did what he does today. His hunt and his pressure around the ball was outstanding. He created a lot of great opportunities and his burst through the middle, he is a hard player to play on, he is a hard player to catch when he is in full stride."

After starting the season with only one win in the first month and exiting round 10 at 3-7, the GIANTS' road show will continue in Brisbane or Adelaide next weekend, continuing a remarkable recovery by a side that finished 16th in 2022 with just six wins. 

There has been a quiet and building confidence at the GIANTS for most of the season, but it wasn't until late in the year amid a seven-game winning streak that Kingsley fully believed a finals run was possible. 

"As the year has progressed we've improved significantly. We started to play a recognisable brand that I thought would stack up against quality opponents. Towards the end of the season, when we were up and going pretty well, I thought it was possible around then," he said.

"It is a hard one to answer because I do have that inner belief from the pre-season that we had a really strong group. We just didn't necessarily show it in the first 10 rounds of the season, but we had signs. The group I have tremendous belief in. I think when they play that style of footy they are really hard to beat. That is certainly what we pride ourself on."