GREATER Western Sydney can win its semi-final without Toby Greene firing, but coach Adam Kingsley admits he needs his skipper to lift his game.
Facing a sudden-death clash against a red-hot Brisbane on Saturday, Kingsley expects Greene to lead from the front and go full-throttle to keep their premiership hopes alive.
Greene, well known for breaking opposition hearts with his creative talents in front of goal, kicked only two behinds in the first term as he battled with Sydney defender Dane Rampe in their qualifying final loss.
The crafty forward faces another tough weekend shift at Engie Stadium with a match-up against Brandon Starcevich on the cards.
The Lions defender held Greene to a career-low four disposals in their last match-up in round 22 at the Gabba.
"We need him to play better than what he did," Kingsley said on Thursday.
"I don't know if he was poor against Sydney. I think he contributed.
"He had some opportunities that he would have liked to have taken and that would have certainly helped us.
"He's going to get Starcevich again this week. He kept him to four possessions last time we played for the bulk of it so another tough match-up for him.
"But you know what? He's (Greene) one of the best players in the competition.
"We expect him to work his way through any match-up that he gets and impact the game like he usually does.
"That's what we expect out of him."
But Kingsley swatted away suggestions his side was over-relying on Greene to be its constant match-winner when games go down to the wire.
The livewire forward earlier in the week said he felt no pressure to do so.
"We're a more dangerous beast (with Greene firing) if you want to call us that," Kingsley said.
"I'd like to think we're not reliant on anyone, albeit, the talk around us on our reliance on Toby or Jesse (Hogan), Tom (Green) in the midfield, Sam Taylor behind the ball.
"We're a bit more of a team than that and we've managed to win games with guys who aren't quite at their best.
"Clearly, in finals footy, you need as many as you can close to their best and particularly our best players.
"We're happy to win with Toby Greene quiet, that's for sure, so long as we can get to win."
Determined to bring the heat from the first bounce, Kingsley, in a rare move, "very politely" asked cameras to stop filming a 10-minute period of their match simulation training on Thursday.
"We were trying a few things that I didn't really want ... to make sure, you know, that didn't get out," Kingsley said.
"We just wanted to keep it a bit more secluded.
"We know that we've got to refocus otherwise Brisbane will come down here and take the win off us."
