Tom Boyd is thrilled with how his body has survived its first AFL pre-season as Greater Western Sydney's latest promising key forward dreams of an appearance in Round 1 against the Sydney Swans.
The No.1 selection in last year's NAB AFL Draft, Boyd says the first few months at his new club were incredibly demanding, both physically and mentally.
But the 18-year-old has found his groove, to the point where the club's coaching staff has had to rein him in as the pre-season draws to a close.
"It's flown by and to the GIANTS' credit, they’ve done an unbelievable job settling us in and making sure it's as easy as possible to move state," Boyd told AFL.com.au about the club's latest batch of draftees.
"The first couple of months on the track in particular were very hard and I had to physically and mentally adjust to the rigours of an AFL pre-season.
"But from there it's been all positive.
"I had key goals that I wanted to improve my endurance and I did so, beating my best time in the 3k [time-trial] by over a minute and a half. I knew that was a weakness of mine.
"I feel like I've got as much as I can out of the pre-season and only missed two or three sessions the whole time.
"If anything they've had to peg me back for how much I've been doing, rather than trying to push me on, and I've been really happy with how my body has held up so far."
Boyd will take part in an intra-club match next week, which will be followed by the GIANTS' opening NAB Challenge match against the Swans in Canberra.
Having dominated at junior level, the 201cm, 102kg forward has had to adjust to not necessarily being the main man at a club that already boasts All Australian spearhead Jeremy Cameron.
Jonathon Patton is also on the comeback from a knee injury, while Adam Tomlinson, Kristian Jaksch and James Stewart are also key forward options for the Giants.
It is something Boyd anticipated before his arrival in western Sydney and he feels a balanced forward line gives the best opportunity for success.
"It's something I expected would happen, but equally I like to think I've got a fairly good grip on being cautious of not stepping on other people's toes in forward lines," he said.
"I've done so in the past, probably not as much as I have to now, but still I've always had that in the forefront of my mind that it's not all about you.
"If you're so predictable that all you're kicking to is one person in the forward line, it rarely works in a way that benefits the team.
"We're learning to work together. Jeremy and I have done a fair bit together in the forward drills and with 'Patto' coming back in now, the three of us hopefully will get a crack at working together.
"Obviously those two are a bit ahead of me and I've got to work to find my spot in the team."
Surprisingly, Wednesday was Boyd's first ever look inside the ground, and he concedes he has thought about taking his place in the line-up when the GIANTS take on the Swans there to start the new season.
"Dreamed is probably the best way to describe it," he said.
"I'd love to play in round one, I think every player would. (GWS coach) Leon (Cameron) alluded to it today that we're all fighting for spots.
"At the moment it's really important for us to get that balance of achieving personal success in terms of getting games, but also remembering that if we want to be a successful team, we've got to be bigger than the individual.
"It's a real balancing act and one I've never really experienced, so fingers crossed I'm good enough and in good enough form to play round one, but we'll just have to wait and see."
The GIANTS' opening NAB Challenge match against the Swans is in Canberra on February 20.
