Shut down, run-with, or go head-to-head with Joel Selwood –that's the dilemma facing the GIANTS when they take on Geelong this week.

The Cats' captain returns from suspension against the GIANTS at StarTrack oval on Saturday afternoon, and could find himself opposed to his opposite number and fellow tough nut Callan Ward.

GWS have used Stephen Coniglio on some of the competition's best midfielders so far this season, including Collingwood's Scott Pendlebury, Gold Coast's Gary Ablett, and Melbourne's Nathan Jones, but it remains to be seen if the West Australian will target another captain this week.

Selwood's inclusion will no doubt have the young GIANTS on high alert, and they'll need to work together to win the midfield battle, Ward says.

"He's a champion of the game and extremely tough," Ward told AFL.com.au.

"He can run, he's deceivingly quick, he's there first and attacks the footy so hard, so to play on him is extremely tough.

"Cogs (Stephen Coniglio) is obviously playing some good footy for us, and playing an important role.

"I think Geelong have some really good other mids as well as Selwood, in (Josh) Caddy and (Cam) Guthrie, so we could throw a tag on or we might just go head to head with them.

"Hopefully we can all play as a team in the midfield and help each other out."

Geelong kept themselves in touch with the top eight with a gritty eight-point win over the Western Bulldogs last week, and despite sitting 11th on the ladder showed they were still a dangerous outfit.

A victory over the Cats would give the GIANTS 10 wins for the year, and go a long way towards securing an historic finals berth, and Ward realises the significance of round 17 to his club's season.

"Every game gets harder and harder, especially at this time of year when there's probably five or six teams vying for the last couple of spots in the eight," Ward said.

"I think they were up by 22 or 23 in contested ball (last week) which is their best effort for the season, so I think they had a huge focus on contested ball and that's where it really starts for them.

"They've got a great back six, they love a chop out and taking intercept marks, so we need to be careful of that.

"We've got ways to hopefully counteract that and score from that, but it's a huge challenge because they're in good form."

GWS hasn't lost a game in Canberra in 2015 after beating Melbourne in round two and Gold Coast two weeks later, but they've never toppled the Cats in three previous meetings.

The GIANTS broke their membership record this week, and Ward believes a lot of the club's success is due to the passionate supporters in the nation's capital.

"We love Canberra. We think our fan base down there is getting bigger and bigger, I think there's more and more members jumping on board from the area," he said.

"Hopefully it's a sellout this week, which would be the first time that’s happened in our history."

The GIANTS take on Geelong at StarTrack Oval in Canberra at 1.45pm on Saturday, July 25.

Silver unreserved tickets have been exhausted while there are under 500 tickets remaining in General Admission and less than 800 gold reserved tickets left. Tickets are selling fast and won’t last long.


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