Nick Haynes is hoping a project he’s been working on for several months will help show the real GIANTS.

The GIANTS defender, one of nine players remaining at the club from its inaugural season, has been piecing together a documentary to show the club’s journey from scratch to a maiden Grand Final appearance.

His reasoning for working on the documentary now is two-fold.

“Firstly, I love video editing, it’s a passion of mine, but then (another reason is) a misconception of the club is that we’re a plastic club, we’re made by the AFL via all those draft picks and we should have success,” Haynes said.

“This club started from the bottom – we didn’t have a training ground, we were a group of 18-year-olds all bunched in together.

“It could have gone any way, so I think I wanted to really emphasise the culture that we’ve made here, the brotherhood, the closeness that we are as a club.

“Not just the on-the-field stuff, but off the field: how far we’ve developed in our sponsors, our fans, just representing Western Sydney and how much football has grown in Western Sydney.”

On the field, Haynes is confident small tweaks are the key for the GIANTS this year.

2019 was an impressive year for the GIANTS defenders as a whole, but the efforts of the backs in the semi-final and preliminary final particularly were outstanding as the GIANTS hung on in two close clashes to advance to the last Saturday in September.

Haynes pointed to the trust the GIANTS’ back seven have built together over a number of years as a key reason the group was able to stand up under immense pressure, and which will hold them in good stead again this season.

“When the big moments come, you can trust your players and we definitely do that as a backline group,” he said.

“We’re looking to build on that and do a few little tweaks to our game, and I’ve got a lot of faith those little tweaks will work out in 2020.”

For Haynes, it is already shaping up as a big season.

After having only a “six-week pre-season” leading into 2019, courtesy of stress fractures derailing his December and January training, the 27-year-old is already up and about, and priming to play in Friday night’s AFL State of Origin match for bushfire relief.

“I thought I’d have a rough start to the year (last year), but credit to the medical team and my fellow backmen around me, I was ready to transition in nicely and after a few weeks get back in the groove,” Haynes said.

“This pre-season I think I’ve missed maybe one or two drills here and there, but overall it’s one of the best pre-seasons I’ve had.

“It’s good to be out on the park with the boys this time of year and doing all the hard work. We’ve got most of our boys on the track and training, which is good.”

The benefit of having such a healthy list and strong competition for spots points to exciting prospects for the GIANTS in both the AFL and NEAFL, according to Haynes.

“We’re going to have 10-12 players in the back line that are up and running, and that’s just great for the club with people pushing for spots,” he said.

“Our NEAFL team is going to be really strong this year, and hopefully both our AFL and NEAFL teams can provide that winning culture around the club.”

It is a culture Haynes says has been building for quite a while.

Although 2019 marked the GIANTS’ first Grand Final appearance, it is a moment the club has been building up to for a long while, with the team featuring in September in each of the past four seasons.

Over those four seasons, the GIANTS were also the only team to win a final in each campaign.

Haynes said while the club’s first Grand Final appearance was good experience for the group, the belief and determination is nothing new.

“Everything we do now, everything we’ve done all along, is to be successful,” Haynes said.

“There’s a good feeling around the group and a lot of sacrifice that everyone has taken as part of this group and a lot of selflessness that’s part of this group at the moment.

“That’s going to hold us in good stead for the year and that’s going to build that trust that not only our back seven has, but the whole group has going into 2020.”