WITH a fresh one-year deal signed and his retirement plans shelved for now, Greater Western Sydney veteran Cal Ward has cleared the mind for his eighth finals campaign and an assault on a first flag of his storied career.
The evergreen 34-year-old has long discussed hanging up the boots should the Giants win the flag, in a fairytale finish to his 17-year time at the top.
And while the emotion of that, should it occur, may still prompt a U-turn from Ward, he has committed to playing on for one more year before relocating back to Melbourne with his wife and children where he will live when his time at GWS is up.
He pines, however, for that to happen with a premiership medal in tow at a club that is very dear to his heart, and that quest ramps up a level at a sold out SCG in the qualifying final blockbuster with the Swans.
Ward may not be the number one inside midfield bull at the Giants like he was for so long, but he is occupying a crucial role on the wing and has averaged better than a goal a game over the last 10 weeks.
"I think my last month I've been a little quieter than I would have liked. I feel like I've been a little better overall in becoming more dangerous around goal, but also helping our backline," Ward told AFL.com.au.
"I feel like I can add value to the team, I wouldn’t be playing if I didn't. Going into the finals series I'm pretty confident in how we're playing as a team but also how I'm playing, and most are in the team at the moment.
"This is our equal best finish to a season. Hopefully we don't have to rely on the double chance, but we've put ourselves in a great position, we're taking lots of confidence into the finals, that's for sure.
"Maybe we had some doubts in the middle of the year when we weren't going crash hot, but the last eight weeks our consistency has been much better, but I still feel we have levels to get to. I don't think we’re playing our best footy," Ward said.
If there is any doubt around the Giants' premiership credentials and ability to win a flag this year with long-term stalwarts like Ward and others in the side, it may surround their midfield depth.
Gun tagger Toby Bedford will miss the Sydney clash, flyer Finn Callaghan is under an injury cloud and didn't train all week, while ruckman Keiren Briggs and engine room star Stephen Coniglio have been playing with shoulder issues for weeks.
"There's no doubt 'Brigger' (Briggs) and 'Cogs' (Coniglio) have been sore, but they wouldn't play if they didn't think they could get through finals, they're not selfish players. There's no doubt they think they can play well, and we'll back them in all the way.
"I'm not concerned about those two at all," said Ward.
Despite losing the last three home and away games between the two sides, the Giants have triumphed in the last three finals against the Swans.
A fourth win over them in September may just be the biggest of all considering the Swans' season, for a club Ward is full of praise for.
"I've been here for 13 years now and I've learnt so much about that football club (Sydney), how you should run a football club and play your football, so I've got a huge amount of respect for the Sydney Swans.
"They're the proven best team in the competition. It's going to be tough but there's definitely areas we can improve on from our last three games against them, and us at our best is hard to stop for any team.
"We'll have a plan for a couple of them."
