GWS CO-CAPTAIN Phil Davis remains bullish about his club's future and says Saturday's 89-point Grand Final hammering will only galvanise the players.
Key defender Davis and his teammates fronted a few hundred supporters at a Giants' fans day at the club's headquarters in Sydney on Sunday, 24 hours after suffering the third-biggest grand final losing margin in history.
"The year has been spectacular, and in particular the last month. Unfortunately we didn't quite put the perfect chapter in to finish the book. However, it's just the first volume,"
Giant Lachie Whitfield won't remember his first Grand Final fondly. Picture: AFL Photos
Coach Leon Cameron told the crowd: "We take great experiences and great learnings from the day yesterday."
"It’s important to understand this will be a galvanising experience for us," said
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"There won’t be any splinters or anything like that. We'll be forged even tighter from that and even harder and we can’t wait for 2020."
Part of Davis's optimism is based on the expected return from knee injuries of the Giants' two most senior ball-winning midfielders, co-captain Callan Ward, who played just a few minutes in 2019, and vice-captain Stephen Coniglio, who missed their last 10 matches.
"Look at what we’ve got now and with some luck and without injuries, with Stephen and Callan and the like we look very strong,"
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"I'm very bullish on the fact that I think we're a very exciting team with plenty of upside."
It was a fourth final in as many weeks for GWS and came off the back of draining nailbiters against Brisbane and Collingwood, but
"There's no doubt the three weeks prior had been physically demanding but our medical team and physical performance team are doing an amazing job and we felt ready to go," he said.
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"Unfortunately, you look tired when the (other) team are playing really well and they're moving the ball quickly.
"I think physically we were as ready as we could have been."
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"I actually felt pretty good, no excuses for my performance from my body," he said.
"The start of the week didn't look likely that I'd be there and the medical team did an enormous job to get me out there and unfortunately I just couldn't contribute how I would have liked to have."
"There's doubt those two players in particular have got the capability to go one more year,"