GIANTS skipper Alicia Eva says a number of teammates are primed to take their game to another level this season as the GIANTS prepare to open their 2023 NAB AFLW campaign with a ‘heated’ Sydney Derby clash against the Swans at North Sydney Oval.
On Sunday the GIANTS and the Swans will clash for just the second time in the AFLW, following the Swans’ addition to the competition last season alongside three other new expansion clubs.
Despite having not yet won a game in the competition, finishing their debut season winless after 10 games, the Swans will enter the 2023 season with lofty expectations following the highly publicised recruitment of their two new co-captains, Chloe Molloy and Lucy McEvoy.
While their fresh-faced little sister, the Swans, have been given the spotlight for their new star recruits, Eva says there’s just as many reasons to be buoyant about at the GIANTS this season as she prepares to lead her charges into what she expects to be a spicy encounter on Sunday.
“It’s shaping up to be a really heated contest, as we would expect,” Eva said.
“And of course, the Swans have had some change over the off-season and have a few high-profile recruits come up and we’ve seen a lot of their younger players develop, [but] as have ours as well.
“We can talk about the rivalry and the Swans and who has come into their side, but I want to talk about who we have developed from day dot.
“We’ve had a number of our young players attracting interest from interstate, but they’ve remained GIANTS and that speaks volume of our culture and speaks volume of where we are going as a club.
“I can’t wait to see the likes of Tarni Evans, Zarlie Goldsworthy, Alyce Parker, Georgia Garnett, and Nic Barr all stand up.
“I think they’ve had their best pre-seasons and I think they’re going to take their games to another level.”
After finishing 11th last season, Eva was excited for the GIANTS to turn things around and show off almost nine months of hard work come Sunday.
“We were back in the club from about January, so a lot of the girls have been training for a really, really long time,” she said.
“We had an extended program prior to our pre-season because we were really realistic at the end of last season, we didn’t play finals and that was disappointing for us.
“We don’t shy away from the fact we want to play finals footy and want to be a really successful team in this competition, so we’ve been working really, really hard.
“We can’t wait to put our footy on display and really continue the fast, energetic game plan that ‘Berna’ [coach Cam Bernasconi] implemented last year.”
Plagued with long-term injuries to a number of key players last season, Eva said what was last season’s curse has actually benefited the club heading into the 2023 season.
“Last year it was we started with a really high energy and completely different game plan and then by round two we lost eight of our starting 16, so we really had to kind of shuffle the decks a little bit,” she said.
“But what we did gain out of last season, is that some of the younger girls on our list who thought they probably had 12 months of development and wouldn’t actually play a game, they had to stand up and had to play then and there.
“They’ve now had 12 months of development that they probably wouldn’t have had otherwise if not for all those injuries coming at once.
“Now this year, we make little tweaks and add onto that same game plan, we’ve got some of our most experienced players back, and then with the addition of those youngers girls that have come along in leaps and bounds, we certainly feel we are in a much stronger position and that’s why I’m incredibly excited for Sunday and what’s to come this season.”
A slightly bemused GIANTS coach Cam Bernasconi played down comments from the Swans on Wednesday, preferring to focus on his own side in his second season in charge.
"It's some strong comments. To be honest, I'm just really focused on what we do. We're really keen on just making sure we can control everything we can inside these four walls, and we've got lots of belief in where we're going,” he said.
"We've got, I think, the youngest list in the AFLW at the moment. We've also kept a lot of our experience as well. We believe we're in a really good position to improve and absolutely get back into a position where we're playing at the top end of the year and finals.
"I think along the way as well, eight years into AFLW, you're constantly evolving and changing as well, but we probably feel really confident in the way we've prepared and where the list sits. We'll probably more worry about what we can control."
The GIANTS and the Swans will clash at North Sydney Oval on Sunday at 3:05pm.
