Toby Greene has no plans to change his role at the GIANTS and believes he can improve on his career-best 2016 season.
Greene won the GIANTS' best and fairest and was named in the All Australian starting 18 after an outstanding season in which he booted 43 goals from 23 games, led the league in goal assists, and was ranked second for inside 50s.
The 23-year-old averaged 21.3 possessions per game playing as a high half-forward for the GIANTS, with the odd stint in the midfield, and thrived alongside veteran recruit Steve Johnson, as the GIANTS made it all the way to the preliminary final.
After such a massive impact last season, and the arrival of former Richmond star Brett Deledio, who has been earmarked to also play as a forward, one could forgive Greene for wanting to get back into the onball rotation in 2017, but he told AFL.com.au that he's more than happy to stay put inside 50.
"I think I'll stay as a forward next year, there's too much to do in the midfield," he joked.
"I haven't sat down with Leon (Cameron) yet to discuss it in detail, but I'm keen to play a similar role to last season, playing as a forward with the occasional run in the middle.
"I've just got to keep doing the same things I've been doing, and that’s keeping my head down and training hard.
"With Brett Deledio working with us now, he brings a different dynamic, and he's on fire at training so it's great to be learning off those sorts of guys.
"He's been great around the group, he adds a lot of class to our team, can play a variety of roles, and has the speed too."
With Greene, Deledio, Johnson and Devon Smith, the GIANTS have plenty of star power at ground level in the forward half, to perfectly complement their trio of talls in Jeremy Cameron, Jonathon Patton, and Rory Lobb, who kicked 120 goals between them last season.
Greene said although he was the one locked into a roving role last season, he doubts he'll be the only one doing it next year.
"I think anyone in our forward group can play up the ground, we even saw 'Lobby' (Rory Lobb) and 'Jezza' (Jeremy Cameron) getting up there last season," he said.
"It gives the coaches a different angle if we're struggling a bit and it absolutely helps having a lot of variety in the team."
Despite the fact that Greene, Patton and Lobb all had breakout seasons this year, and the on-field success of the team, the Giants' forwards have already targeted where they need to be better in 2017.
While the GIANTS had no issues kicking a winning score in 2016, Greene said the forward group has to work harder when they don't have the footy to maintain pressure on the opposition.
"Defensively I've got to add a fair bit of improvement in me, and as a forward line group, we were pretty poor with that type of stuff last year," he said.
"We've spoken about that, so that’s been one of my big focuses over the pre-season.
"We recognised that we need to do a lot better with things like our tackling pressure inside 50 and locking the ball in our half."
