It's unusual for Tom Scully to give too much away, but not even he can hide the excitement that is building at the Giants heading into Greater Western Sydney's first finals series.
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It has taken the Giants until their fifth season to feature in September action, but the wait has been longer for the No.1 pick from the 2009 draft, who was one of the first players with AFL experience contracted by the expansion club in 2011.
At the time Scully said the lure of being part of something new was too hard to refuse. Perhaps so too the reported $6 million offer and the chance to play in a team that would in time be bursting with elite young talent.
That Scully is still on the field this late into a season is a change after having his 2014 and 2015 campaigns ended by injury.
"This is what you play football for, to give yourself an opportunity to play off in the finals," Scully said. "Previous years I sat back and watched other sides play in the finals and you look on with envy and wish to be part of it.
"It takes a lot of work and you know you have to be consistent over a season to do it. We've put ourselves in that position, but everyone's really looking forward to the opportunity.
"In the past we've had the NEAFL guys in the final, but it's a little bit different with the whole footy club being involved."
The Giants' top-four aspirations suffered an enormous hit with their loss to the West Coast Eagles last week, but Scully says they have learnt the lessons of that painful defeat.
Scully said the Giants had not practised simulating a close finish this week, but it has been discussed at length off the track.
"As you get to finals and big games they're generally pretty close and you can't afford to make mistakes like that in big games," Scully said.
"We do review it quite often, but there's only an amount of time in a week you can fit everything in – we'd like to do more but time doesn't allow that.
"It's really important you do those sessions and you know what you're doing. It takes strong communication and leadership and that's something we can learn and improve from."
The Giants must beat Fremantle and North Melbourne in their remaining two matches and hope one of Adelaide, Sydney or Geelong drop a game if they are to return to the top four.
