GREATER Western Sydney players who aren't desperate and hungry to play finals football next season are not welcome at the Giants, All Australian defender Heath Shaw says.
In an exclusive chat with AFL.com.au the GWS 2015 club champion gave his teammates a passionate ultimatum; get on board or get out of the club.
Shaw, 29, won his first ever club best and fairest this season after leading the competition for kicks and rebound 50s in a brilliant year down back, but he believes the Giants let a finals berth slip through their fingers.
The always honest and straight-talking vice-captain can often been seen in animated discussions with his teammates on the field, and has the same approach off it when it comes to talking about the direction in which he expects the club to head.
"When you finish early and you watch the finals you get very, very jealous, and if you're not getting jealous then we don't want you here," Shaw said.
"We're a team that's ready to step up and go to the next level.
"I want to play finals, (coach) Leon (Cameron) wants to play finals, we're striving for that and we're not holding back on the fact that if you're not on that pathway, then see you later.
"I haven't played finals for two years and I'll be selfish in that regard … I've told these boys that I want to play finals football.
"I'm happy we moved forward but I'm disappointed with the way the second half of the year panned out.
"We were a better team then what we showed and we'll address that over the pre-season and come back rocked and ready to go.
"Eleven (wins) and 11 (losses) is good, but 11 and 11 doesn't get you into the finals; we're ready to go forward and that means getting 13, 14, 15 wins.
"Next year if we don't play finals then that's a failure, it's as simple as that."
GWS won six of its first eight games of this season but finished 11th after a poor second half of the year in which they won just four games after the round 13 bye.
Injuries to key players in the round 11 loss to Collingwood had a significant impact, with Shane Mumford (ankle) going down for the year, and co-captain Phil Davis (ankle) and Joel Patfull (ribs/punctured lung) also missing over a month of footy.
The loss of key midfielders Dylan Shiel and Tom Scully towards the back end of the year with knee injuries also hurt the Giants' cause, but Shaw refused to make any excuses for his young side.
"It would be easier with them, but we have a NEAFL team that was very successful this year and we had other people ready to come in," Shaw said.
"There were games in the second half of the year that we should have won even without those guys, but we didn't."
Star onballer Adam Treloar has left the club to seek a move back to Melbourne – with Collingwood all but over the line to win his signature – and young forward Cam McCarthy has asked the Giants for a trade back to his home state of Western Australia, which the club has knocked back.
Other than that pair, all of the Giants' most important players have recommitted to the club, with Shiel, four-time leading goal kicker Jeremy Cameron, Stephen Coniglio and Devon Smith all signing new deals in 2015.
With the return of Mumford, plus some better luck on the injury front next year, the Giants should be contenders for a top eight position and perhaps even more, and Shaw is excited by what the future holds.
"We aimed for the top eight this year and we missed out, but I can see this group growing and maturing and being a part of the finals," Shaw said.
"You watch games of footy and you never know what's going to happen.
"Our team showed that throughout the season, we beat teams that we shouldn't have and we lost games that we should have won."
