A GIANT JIGSAW
club. Soon after, Callan Ward arrived from the Western Bulldogs, Rhys Palmer from Fremantle, Tom Scully from Melbourne.
In November 2011, Silvagni plucked the proverbial out of the national draft — picks one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, nine, 10, 11, 13, 14 at the draft, plus three late-round selections.
Silvagni’s harvest was rich: Toby Greene, Stephen Coniglio, Taylor Adams, Devon Smith, Jon Patton, Will Hoskin-Elliott, Nick Haynes among them.
The 11 were supplemented by one-year deals to veterans Chad Cornes, Luke Power and Dean Brogan to stiffen-up a young side for the debut 2012 season. Sheedy had something to work with and, with Williams, took control of the lads who lived together at a Breakfast Creek complex.
The battle-hardened coaches dished out a crash course in AFL. The first season went somewhat beyond expectations with just two wins.
Silvagni returned to the draft with the first three picks, with his haul featuring Lachie Whitfield and a late steal: Zac Williams, zone selection, rookie draft pick No.54.
But the long-term vision carried short-term pain. The Giants won just once in 2013, prompting a major re-think.
“The end of year two was probably the toughest,” McConnell said. “We got to about Round 18 or 19 — we need to stop the bus, just park the bus for a bit. And reconnect and reload and go again.”
The on-field woes were trashing the GWS brand in the new market. “We have got administrators … marketing people trying to sell blue sky — everybody’s job is so much harder,” McConnell said.
“The courage that people had in the administration in those days to stick tough with what we were doing is not well enough documented.”
And so Sheedy y stepped aside de as coach — he’d played his role.
Leon Cameron then took over — which surprised Williams, who thought the job was his.
Cameron’s Giants claimed six wins in 2014 — after which Silvagni departed for Carlton, his western Sydney work done.
“I have no doubt the club has a great future,” he said at the time.
A maturing playing list delivered 11 wins in 2015. Then, the breakthrough: fourth-place and first finals campaign in 2016.
The upstarts downed hometown rival Sydney in a qualifying final only to fall a goal short of the Western Bulldogs in an preliminary-final epic.
In 2017, the Giants reached another preliminary final, only to lose to eventual premier Richmond; last year were beaten semi-finalists by Collingwood; this year, a grand final.
“The growth of the club, from a performance perspective and the consistency over the team, has been pretty remarkable,” McConnell said.