LEICESTER City's extraordinary English Premier League title is proof that anything can happen in professional sport, and that includes a Greater Western Sydney flag in 2016, according to midfielder Stephen Coniglio.
The Foxes were 5000-1 to claim the EPL crown before the season started, but pulled off one of sport's greatest fairytales by fending off league heavyweights Tottenham, Arsenal, Manchester City and 13-time champions Manchester United to claim the title.
The Giants stormed into premiership contention with a 75-point smashing of Hawthorn on Saturday and face bottom-side Fremantle this week, who are winless after six rounds.
Match preview: Fremantle v Greater Western Sydney
Coniglio told AFL.com.au that there's plenty of footy to be played before his side – who are chasing a fourth straight win this week – can be talked about as genuine flag chances, but that won't stop the Giants players daring to dream.
"It's tough to say with it only early in the year, but the belief is there, and we'll just keep believing and the sky is the limit really," he said.
"We know we've got a lot of hard work to do, but if you look around the sporting world at the moment, you've got Leicester City in the Premier League and everyone wrote them off at the start of the season.
"Nothing is impossible in sport now and we'll just keep working hard.
"Who knows where we'll end up."
Coniglio was one of the Giants' best last week when he played a shutdown role on Hawks' ball magnet Sam Mitchell at Spotless Stadium.
The 22-year-old kept Mitchell to five first quarter possessions and 25 for the day, although most of those were in Hawthorn's back half, while laying nine tackles and gathering 30 touches of his own.
A pre-season hamstring niggle forced Coniglio - who was voted into the GWS leadership group this year - to start the year in the NEAFL, and the tough onballer says he used that disappointment to inspire his early season form.
"It was one of those situations when you just have to put the team first," he said.
"You just have to control what you can control and it might sound like a bit of a cliché, but my role for the team was to go away and work my way back in, which is what I did.
"I think every now and again you need to get a little stinger under the belt and I think it makes you a little bit hungrier."
Coniglio said his teammates enjoyed the spoils of drubbing the Hawks, but attention was quickly turned to the trip back to his hometown this weekend.
The Giants record at Domain Stadium is woeful, with their four games against Fremantle and two against West Coast resulting in defeats totaling 503 points, at an average losing margin of almost 84 points per game.
"I know it was a fantastic win (over Hawthorn), but we haven't won in Perth and we know we're up against it," Coniglio said.
"Even though they haven't won a game yet we need to re-set.
"We're under no illusions, we've usually lost heavily over there."
