GREATER Western Sydney is set to recall Brent Daniels and could add young tall Jake Riccardi as Leon Cameron looks to tweak his attacking mix ahead of Sunday's clash against Fremantle.
Zippy small forward Daniels is likely to return from a hamstring injury, and Riccardi is facing a fitness test on a rolled ankle suffered in a pre-season hit-out.
"Daniels is clearly available. If he gets through training today then no doubt he can come back into our team," Cameron told reporters on Thursday.
"He's trained really well the last couple of weeks."
Riccardi's possible recall would add height to a forward line that relied on Harry Himmelberg and Toby Greene as its main marking targets against St Kilda in round one, with Lachie Keeffe occasionally presenting inside 50 too.
Extra height would also test a Fremantle backline that will be missing a number of its first-choice defenders, especially now that Joel Hamling and Alex Pearce have been added to the Dockers lengthy injury list.
MEDICAL ROOM The full AFL injury list
"[Riccardi] has come on really quickly, which is really pleasing," said Cameron.
"He trained Tuesday, he'll train today, so he'll put his hand up and he's definitely in the mix."
A Giants forward line without foundation player and 2019 Coleman medallist Jeremy Cameron, was always going to be one of the more intriguing stories of 2021.
Some things went right in their first competitive test, with the Giants having 68 inside 50s – 10 more than the Saints – including nine of the first 11 forward entries in a tense final quarter. GWS also had more scoring shots.
But they were unable to hurt the Saints enough on the scoreboard, and especially when enjoying periods of dominance in general play and territory.
"We did a lot right and played the game in our front half, we just didn't take those big moments and St Kilda did," Cameron said.
"But you have to be careful with turning everything upside down after one week.
"We had it in there, and we had shots on goal, but some of our movement going inside 50 needed to be a little bit better."
While only five teams since 2010 have played finals after starting the season with two straight losses, Cameron said the Giants won't go into the game against the Dockers facing any added pressure, and will expect to play finals regardless of the result.
"We produced a poor year last year," he said.
"We want to play finals footy this year. We're not going to shy away from that.
"We're disappointed that we did get off with the start we wanted in round one.
"But we've seen over the weekend in a number of teams that youth can do enormous things. We've got a lot of players under that 15-game mark, and we're really excited for what they can for us."
