Giants ready for Tigers

HEATH Shaw has declared that the Giants “are back” and will be looking to hit Richmond hard early in an effort to counter what is expected to be a rampant Tigers crowd next Saturday.

GWS will travel to Melbourne later this week ahead of its second- straight preliminary final and Shaw said the team will be bringing the confidence that it has “earned the right” to be there with it.

Tickets go on sale today with Richmond fans to again make up the overwhelming majority at the MCG.

And Shaw – who has played in six preliminary finals – had some sage advice for his teammates, including arriving ready to fire in an attempt to quell the force of the “Tiger army”.

“The best advice you can give is to kick a few goals early because they won’t be cheering too hard if we’re kicking goals,” he said.

“But to be honest ( I’d tell them) it’s about being in the moment and enjoy being at the MCG in a preliminary final.

“Enjoy playing footy with your teammates and as you saw ( against West Coast on Saturday night), the boys were up and about. We were excited about playing footy and we’re just enjoying being out there and the success around the team is built on that enjoyment and having fun with your team mates. Sometimes that gets lost in footy, because it’s a pretty serious caper.

“The best thing you can do is go and ... have a bit of fun.”

Shaw said that Saturday night’s win was “a really big step forward” for the Giants, who he said are “totally pumped” at what Saturday will hold, with a crowd of up to 95,000 people expected.

“We are back. We played better ( on Saturday night) than we did the week before ( against Adelaide),” he said on Channel 9.

“We have earned the right to play in a prelim and last night was a real big step forward for us in terms of our form and just the way we went about it.”