GWS Report Card

'''This year:''' 2 wins, 20 losses, 46.17 percentage.

'''This year's grade:''' D

'''Positives from this year:''' Despite winning the wooden spoon, Giants coach Kevin Sheedy will take plenty of encouragement from what he saw in the club's maiden season in the AFL. As you would expect with an array of highly rated youngsters, Greater Western Sydney were terrific in glimpses but failed to match their opponents for consistency.

They were given little chance of competing by most pundits prior to the year but the Giants caused problems for quite a few sides in the first half of the season with an attacking brand of football and fearless attack at the contest.

Co-captain Callan Ward led the way for the Giants with a superb season. The former Bulldog who had played 60 matches before moving to western Sydney averaged 24 disposals per game in the 2012 season and was duly awarded the Kevin Sheedy Medal for the club's best and fairest player in their maiden season.

Youngsters Toby Greene and Jeremy Cameron also starred for the Giants, with both catching the eye regularly in their first years. Greene who surely would have won the Rising Star Award if he was eligible averaged 28 disposals a match, recording over 30 in eight of his last nine matches.

The midfielder, drafted from the Oakleigh Chargers at pick 11 of the 2011 draft, showcased a tremendous ability to find the football and was also damaging as he smashed statistical records for a first-year player.

Cameron was eligible for the Rising Star and finished second, with the key forward who was one of the club's underage recruits kicking 29 goals from 16 matches in 2012. A bag of five goals against the Western Bulldogs in Round 5 highlighted his ability and Cameron also proved himself to be a terrific mark. If Jonathon Patton, selected at pick one in the 2011 draft, can continue to flourish then the Giants will kick plenty of goals in years to come.

Tom Scully also enjoyed a good season but has room for improvement while fellow youngsters Adam Treloar, Jacob Townsend and Devon Smith showed enough to suggest they will be handy players at AFL level.

Off the field, the Giants signed up over 10,000 members, had healthy crowds at their home matches and opened Skoda Stadium to the world in 2012. An exciting future awaits this club.

'''Negatives from this year:'''

The second half of the season was disappointing, if understandable, from a Giants perspective.

They were beaten by big margins in several matches Hawthorn in Round 15 (162 points), Adelaide in Round 16 (119 points), Collingwood in Round 18 (120 points) as Sheedy's men faded.

While the likes of Chad Cornes, Luke Power and Dean Brogan gave GWS a sprinkling of senior players in their side, the majority of their team was young and as a result, their inexperienced bodies struggled to cope with the demands of AFL football as the year wore on.

Winning just two games is not ideal and the Giants will obviously need to build on that in 2013.

A shorter injury list will help on that front.

Of the club's top 10 draft picks in 2011, Liam Sumner (two games), Matthew Buntine (six), Patton (seven), Nick Haynes (eight), Adam Tomlinson (nine), Dom Tyson and Will Hoskin-Elliott (10 each) all played less than half the season.

If the majority of that list can stay injury free in 2012, improvement is almost guaranteed for the Giants.

'''Likely departures:'''

Former Melbourne midfielder James McDonald has already announced his retirement. The 34-year-old joined the club as a playing assistant coach after a 251-game career at Melbourne and played 13 times in 2012. He will now take up a role as a full-time assistant coach with the club.

Cornes, 32, has announced he will play on but decisions on the futures of Brogan, 33, and Power, 32, have not been made yet. The Giants have already delisted Stephen Clifton and Tim Segrave. Clifton who joined the club from North Ballarat played five matches in 2012 while Segrave did not feature.

Off the field, former assistant coach Mark Williams, who coached Port Adelaide to a premiership in 2004, has left the Giants to take up a position at Richmond as a development coach.

'''Next Year'''

'''Type of players needed:'''

With so much young quality on their list, the Giants are unlikely to be big players in either the free agency or trading windows. Instead, Sheedy will look to the draft and a key defender should be high on his priority list.

Phil Davis struggled a little against the competition's key forwards and joked at the club's best and fairest count that he had won the 'reverse Coleman Medal' for having the most goals kicked on him throughout the duration of the season. Of course the constant delivery into the opposition's forward line did not help Davis and at times, another tall defender to take the pressure off would have been a godsend.

Up forward, the Giants have Cameron and Patton to pin their hopes on with Curtly Hampton and Israel Folau handy back-up options. The names of Greene, Tyson and Stephen Coniglio will become household names in years to come through the midfield and Jonathan Giles did a terrific job in the ruck. It seems the last piece of the puzzle is a key backman and you can be sure that a shrewd operator like Sheedy will have his eyes on someone who can slot in and do a job immediately.

'''Likely improvement:''' It's hard not to improve on season 2012 for the Giants. Almost all of their players experienced their first season at AFL level and with a knowledge of what to expect and bigger bodies, they should compete better. It is well-documented that players improve most in the 50-100 games bracket and although none of the club's young tyros will achieve that mark in 2013, they will get closer, and the amount of sheer quality among the club's squad cherry-picked from recent drafts will ensure they improve across the board.