WITH Jacob Hopper and Tim Taranto out the door, there will be a new-look engine room at the Giants, which is exciting.

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Keeping an eye on how they approach filling the void will be vital during the pre-season as we assess whether they look to lean on the proven guns like Josh Kelly (MID, $899,000), Stephen Coniglio (FWD/MID, $871,000) and ball-magnet-turned-forward Toby Greene (FWD, $659,000).

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Lock them in

The obvious choice for who steps up in the midfield is young gun Tom Green (MID, $752,000) who enters his fourth season following a career-best average of 85 from 21 games. Despite dropping off in the latter part of the year, he showed what he can do at the beginning of the season, starting in a blaze of glory with scores of 133, 102 and 114 while averaging more than 30 disposals per game. Make sure he is on your watch list at the very least. I think he is in for a big season.

Track their pre-season

Harry Himmelberg (DEF/FWD, $708,000) is one that needs to be watched closely over the pre-season as to where his preferred position will be under the new coaching regime led by Adam Kingsley. Without beating around the bush, if he looks like playing predominantly forward, we steer clear, if he is playing down back, we lock. During pre-Christmas training, he has been training as a forward. It's bad news, but watch this space. Last year we saw what he can do across half-back as his teammates took advantage of his elite field kicking and gave him the ball at every opportunity. The round 10 shift in position resulted in an elite month between rounds 11 and 15 when he averaged 120, highlight by a 16-mark, 161-point performance. He went on to score four more hundreds before the season ended, playing at both ends of the ground but predominantly in defence.

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Dual-position tempter

Stephen Coniglio (MID/FWD, $871,000) has put a couple of forgettable years behind him after being hampered by injury and falling ridiculously out of favour throughout the 2019 and 2020 seasons. Last year we were able to see him demonstrate stretches that suggested he is still capable of playing elite footy. His best and most consistent form began in round 10 with 36 touches and a score of 120 and he didn't look back, reaching triple figures in his next six games to average 118 in that time. If he looks like playing predominantly through the midfield, his forward status puts the 29-year-old right in the selection mix.

Bargain basement

Darcy Jones (MID, 260,000) is one of the rookies to watch if he can squeeze his way into the team following the midfield exodus. He certainly has the runs on the board as a junior Fantasy performer who demonstrated elite agility at the NAB AFL Draft Combine. He played six games at WAFL Colt level, averaging 104, 26 possessions, four marks and five tackles. If he's in for them, he's a good chance to be in for me.

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Draft sleeper

Toby Greene (FWD, $659,000) has certainly made himself at home as one of the best forwards in the game but I can never forget the way he burst onto the scene as a ball-magnet in the midfield, where it looked like a matter of time before he would be officially snouted. Way back in his third year, his ball-winning ways were on full display as a midfielder averaging 136 over his last four games for the year while stuffing the stat sheet. This may seem like a stretch given it is so long ago, but if Adam Kingsley wants some grunt around the ball… I'd be all in.

Buyer beware

Braydon Preuss (RUC, $758,000) has always had a way to convince me that picking big Juicy Preussy is a good idea… and I fell for it on two or three occasions last year. His best is outstanding, as we saw on a number of occasions within his 10 games in 2022, when he managed eight scores of 85 or more, including four hundreds. Unfortunately, it's the injuries and suspensions that hurt him (and his owners) as we saw in round 14 when he combined the two for a score of 14.

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