GWS’s future is bright but football boss Wayne Campbell and the Giants aren’t caught up in the hype

Even before the AFL trade period started bookmakers had installed the GWS Giants as outright favourites to win the premiership — $5 with TAB — in just their sixth year in the competition.

Now they have former Richmond star Brett Deledio to slot into a midfield which is already overflowing with talent and plus the No. 2 selection overall (up from No. 7).

They also have picks a host of second, third and fourth round picks to spend on their academy talent, including Will Setterfield, Harry Perryman and Harrison Macreadie.

It’s a position that has opposition teams extremely nervous but Giants football manager Wayne Campbell says it will count for zero when hostilities commence in March next year.

“I’m not sure whether betting agencies have you at $2 or $2.55 will have any bearing on what happens next season,” Campbell told The Daily Telegraph.

“We were $1.30 going into the preliminary final and we lost, it meant absolutely nothing. We were $1.17 going into the round 16 match against Collingwood and we lost that one as well.”

The Western Bulldogs stopped GWS in their tracks at Spotless Stadium en route to the premiership. But the Giants have added Deledio and will have a lot of natural improvement to come from their young players as well as the addition of the No. 2 pick and their academy talent.

There will also be an unprecedented weight of expectation on the team’s shoulders.

Campbell says the Giants will not be taking any special measures to deal with the relatively new experience.

“We have to get back to pre-season training and back to round one and then we have to win enough games to qualify for finals,” Campbell said.

“While it all looks rosy it’s clearly not that easy because only one side gets to win it. We saw on preliminary final day just how heart breaking it can be if you’re not where you want to be. We think we’ve got ourselves in a reasonable position but it doesn’t count for anything.”

The next order of business for the Giants will be to take advantage of their strong position in this month’s national draft which will be held in Sydney for the first time since 2011 when GWS picked Jonathon Patton at No.1.

They don’t have the top pick this time round but their approach will be simple.

“At pick two we’ll take the best player available,” Campbell said.

“Then after that we have some academy players we will look to bring in.”

Originally published as Future bright but Giants not caught up in hype