After a tough year on and off field, coach Leon Cameron says he and his players have been able to find a number of positives out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Most seasons would see GIANTS players take off to all corners of the world during their off-season, but the domestic and international travel restrictions have seen many making the most of what the harbour city has to offer.
Not only have the players got the chance to explore everything Sydney has to offer away from their busy training schedules, they’ve also been able to jump straight into reviewing the year just gone and prepare for 2021.
With no time zone or phone reception issues to battle, Cameron didn’t wait until the full group came together again in January.
Instead, the senior leaders addressed the year straight away with a number of open and honest discussions.
"You can hide from each other and go 'okay we'll see each other in two months’ and away we go again and we won't talk about that," said Cameron on SEN Breakfast.
"But myself and ‘Cogs’ (Stephen Coniglio) and our leadership group and a lot of our players that have stayed around Sydney have had some great dialogue about what we thought was right and what we thought we got probably wrong."
Cameron and his conditioning staff have also been impressed in the condition of the players returning to training with a number of senior players returning earlier than required, including Toby Greene and Josh Kelly.
New recruits Braydon Preuss and Jesse Hogan have also landed in Sydney early to join in some pre-Christmas training with Cameron pleased with how the duo have embraced the challenge of joining a new club.
It was an interrupted two years for Hogan at Fremantle, but Cameron has been full of praise for the new forward.
"What we're looking forward to from a coach's point of view is who wants to grab (those best 22 spots) and Jesse sits in that boat as well," he said.
"He's looking forward to that challenge and, in these early little signs that we've seen, I can clearly see he's got an appetite to just play some really good footy and let his footy do the talking."
The first to four year players will complete their final session of 2020 on Friday, with the entire playing list returning to training on Wednesday, January 6.