‘No question marks’ for settled GWS

With vice-captain Stephen Coniglio a certain starter after an eye injury forced him out of the elimination final, GWS enters the clash with a full-strength side while the Power sweat on the fitness of key position bookends Charlie Dixon (foot) and Trent McKenzie (ankle).

Kingsley said the clean bill of health after a home and away season dogged by injuries to important players including Sam Taylor, Brent Daniels and Toby Bedford gave the Giants an edge over their wounded opponents.

“I’d rather be in our position in terms of not having to worry about players positionally, (and) are they going to be fit to play, than what (Port) are at the moment,” he said.

“We’re really healthy, as healthy as we’ve been all year really … we’re looking good for selection.

“It’s great, it enables you to put as close as you possibly can to your best team out on the park, we won’t have any question marks on players leading into games now, so that’s nice as opposed to last week when we had a couple.”

Wing-forward Xavier O’Halloran looms as the man most likely to make way for Coniglio after he was a late inclusion against the Saints, with Kinglsey suggesting he favoured veteran defender Nick Haynes to continue as the sub due to his versatility.

Haynes is the only Giant to have played in every one of their 14 finals.

“I do (like Haynes as the sub), I think he’s really flexible, he plays on the wing, he can play key back, he can play small back for us – his versatility is really important, and the reality is we’ve been a really strong backline for probably the last three months,” Kingsley said.

“He has found it a little harder to get into that backline, but I don’t think you get a better, more reliable back-up than what Nick Haynes is.

“He’s been a wonderful player over his career and he’s still contributing really strongly to us.”

Kingsley said Daniels and Bedford could be important points of difference from the Giants’ last meeting against the Power at the Adelaide Oval in round 22, with the pair absent as the home side romped to a 51-point win

“I had to watch it again unfortunately, it wasn’t a great watch. You take every game as it comes and you learn your lessons, win or lose … their intensity was far greater than ours, that was the foundation of the game, and then there were a couple of system things where we didn’t cope well,” Kingsley said.

“I think (Bedford and Daniels playing) changes our side significantly, that speed in the front half for us is really important.

“We didn’t have those two last time obviously, and I think we suffered as a result, so it will be interesting to see how much impact those two can have and whether it actually impacts the result of the game.”

Originally published as ‘Rather be us’: Giants well placed to hunt wounded Port Adelaide, says coach