FOLLOWING a decade-long apprenticeship, Leon Cameron has officially begun life as an AFL head coach and his first task is simple: teach Greater Western Sydney how to win.
Having spent time under Rodney Eade at the Western Bulldogs and Alastair Clarkson at Hawthorn, Cameron filled the senior assistant position under Kevin Sheedy at the Giants in 2013 before taking over the reins.
The majority of their list returned for pre-season training this week and while Cameron is reluctant to put a number on how many wins he is chasing, he knows they must improve markedly on just three victories to date.
"So I shouldn't say 22 wins out of 22?" Cameron told reporters on Friday.
"I think everyone is trying to ask where we're at in terms of wins (and) how do you judge a successful season in our third year.
"We'll judge ourselves by being more competitive, but what I will say is we're here to win. We need to win.
"Our young guys have been here for two years and we've got to learn to win and that's part of their development.
"If we can be competitive for longer, which I'm really confident by the personnel that we've added, and our guys like Jeremy (Cameron) coming into his third pre-season, they are ready to absorb full-on AFL football.
"We're here to win and we're here to win early."
The Giants' experienced recruits – Shane Mumford, Heath Shaw, Josh Hunt and Dylan Addison – will join in pre-season training from November 18.
Sydney Swan Jed Lamb will then come on board via the pre-season draft.
They should all give GWS a major boost, with Mumford's presence in particular set to make his young teammates walk that little bit taller.
"We targeted Shane about two months before the season finished, knowing that he hadn't signed up at that stage," Cameron said.
"But his natural aggression, he's a premiership player, he's a big lad, he'll pave the way for our young onballers – it's the sort of player we really, really wanted to target.
"I think he'll help our guys immensely."
The Giants list is largely in good health, with Jon Patton targeting a return from his knee reconstruction in round one next year.
Cameron is keeping his expectations in check for Patton, stating he likely won't be back to his best until the back end of the year, but overall he is pleased with how his charges are progressing.
"Jeremy reckons he's put on a bit of beef around the arms," the head coach said.
"Look it's going really well, the boys have come back in really good nick. Some of their testing early has indicated that.
"Their enthusiasm generally is fantastic."
Jeremy Cameron is coming off a stunning second season, when he kicked 62 goals and earned All Australian honours.
The 20-year-old is aiming for more of the same in 2014.
"I want to improve my engine and have a full pre-season, that'd be a great start," he said.
"I don't really want to change too much because it worked last year, so I'll keep the same routine all year."
The Giants will depart next month for a week-long training camp on the Sunshine Coast as part of their pre-season preparations.
