Stephen Coniglio isn’t expecting the GIANTS to hold back when the JLT Community Series begins in February.
The 23-year-old midfielder believes the club could field a near full-strength line-up for the three match series.
The GIANTS take on West Coast, Sydney and North Melbourne, three sides who featured prominently in the 2016 AFL finals series and pose as strong opposition ahead of the season proper.
“With the later start of our preseason for the more senior players a lot of our guys are on different programs at the moment so we might see a few of our first and second year players in the first game of the JLT series,” he said.
“But, in the last couple of years in particular, the competition for spots has been high, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we go full strength for two or maybe all three of the games.”
The GIANTS have previously used the JLT Series to test out their latest draftees, exposing their youngsters to senior football.
Having worked closely with a few of the GIANTS’ latest draft crop over the preseason, Coniglio not only thinks they can handle the JLT Community Series but push for higher honors.
“Harry Perryman, Will Setterfield and Timmy Taranto in particular in the midfielder, have been great and the positive thing is that they’re hard-working and always asking questions and wanting to get better,” he said.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we see them in the GIANTS team this year."
The youngsters and the entire GIANTS squad have had to train in intense heat throughout the pre-season, something that Congilio feels is only helping them ahead of a tough season.
“The last couple of weeks in particular since Christmas have been testing on the track,” he said.
“But it’s good for physical and mental training and the boys have been coping really well with it,
“The running that we’ve been doing has probably lessened with the introduction of match play so the boys always love that when January comes around,
We start to play a little bit more of the games and that’s when you get excited.”
