GREATER Western Sydney coach Leon Cameron has confirmed star defender Zac Williams will play his first senior game of the year in Saturday's elimination final against the Swans.
Williams hasn't been seen this season after he ruptured his Achilles at training in January, but he played the last two games of the NEAFL season and gathered 67 possessions across those matches.
If he is selected, the 23-year-old will be the first man to play his first game of the year in a final since 2010, when the Western Bulldogs picked Tim Callan for their qualifying final against Geelong, then selected Andrew Hooper to debut in the semi-final the following week against Sydney.
The serious injury forced the Giants to send Lachie Whitfield to half-back as cover, and the move proved to be a masterstroke, with the former wingman named in last week's All Australian side.
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Cameron has a host of players available to return from injury against the Swans, with Williams, Toby Greene (hamstring), Brett Deledio (calf), Ryan Griffen (hamstring), Sam Taylor (hamstring), Aidan Corr (groin) and Matt de Boer (hamstring) all a chance to play.
While the coach wouldn't shed any light on the rest of that group, he said on Tuesday Williams would be picked.
"The advantage that Zac has got is that he's had six weeks of training and he's played two games," he said.
"We were mindful that we wanted to give him another game, and barring injury during the week, Zac will play on the weekend."
The elimination final will be game 100 for star midfielder Josh Kelly, who has overcome his own injury worries to have an outstanding second half of the season.
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The 2018 club champion and All Australian missed six matches early in the season with groin issues, but played some of his best footy in a 10-game stint after he returned in round 10 and averaged 30.8 possessions, with the Giants winning eight of those games.
Kelly missed the club's last clash with the Swans in round 22 with concussion but said he is fit and healthy and ready for a big September.
"The body is good, obviously it wasn't ideal battling the groins earlier in the year, then a little bit of a concussion, but I'm on a program now that keeps me rolling so I'm 100 per cent," he said.
The two Sydney teams know each other well, having played a practice match and during the JLT Community series as well as their two clashes during the home and away season.
Kelly said the key to beating the Swans was matching their style of play for the full four quarters.
"You know what you're going to get with the Swans. They're a hard, contested footy team," he said.
"All our match-ups with them are quite similar, and it's going to be on from the first bounce."
The Giants and the Swans have met once before in a final, when GWS upset the minor premiers in the qualifying final at ANZ Stadium in 2016.
That match contained a number of fiery clashes, one of which saw then Giant, now Swans assistant coach Steve Johnson, suspended, causing him to miss the preliminary final loss to the Dogs.
"It was a good day, it was brutal, hard, contested footy," Kelly said.
"I guess that’s what finals footy is all about and if you don't rock up with that kind of intent and attack on the footy, you're going to get found out.
"It would be nice if it panned out like that again."
