GREATER Western Sydney is eyeing Saturday's clash with the Western Bulldogs as a good opportunity to notch its first win of 2013, Giants coach Kevin Sheedy says.
The Giants have had a tough time in their second AFL season. Their best chance of winning came in round four when they led Melbourne by 19 points at three-quarter time, only to be overrun by an inspired 12-goal final quarter from the Demons.
The Bulldogs suffered an upset three-point loss to Melbourne on Saturday night after almost overhauling a 39-point quarter-time deficit.
Despite the Giants' 86-point loss to North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium on Sunday, Sheedy said his team would target the clash with the Bulldogs at Canberra's StarTrack Oval as a crucial one.
"It's an opportunity for us to try and search for our first win and I've been speaking to the players just before we came into this press conference," Sheedy said.
"Our NEAFL team had a really good win and a lot of our players that we dropped over the last week or two understand that if you go back and play well that we'll definitely bring some players into the side.
"And they're pretty well experienced sort of players that have gone back and done the right thing by themselves and their own careers."
The last team to go through a VFL/AFL season without winning a game was Fitzroy in 1964, three years before Sheedy started his playing career with Richmond.
In 13 seasons as a player and his 28 previous seasons as a coach, Sheedy has never been part of a winless season.
But the four-time premiership coach said the prospect of being part of one in his final season of coaching was not something he had thought about.
"I'll try not to make it a winless (season)," Sheedy said.
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"But the task you take on when you try to build this club right from the real deep foundation trenches, which is the way we've gone against the different way possibly the Gold Coast Suns have, is that we're coming right through.
"I think Will (Hoskin-Elliott) is about 19, he's played about 15 games, he's probably kicked a dozen goals maybe, something like that.
"Prior to here he's a skinny kid that came out of the western districts of Melbourne and has put on about six kilos since [he's] been here, so he'll only get better.
"He'll suffer some losses early like the Brisbane Bears did and the Swans did when they came up here and they had all those skinny, rakey people out of the Gippsland area.
"But in the end they get bigger and they get a bit stronger and they go and get a big Tony Lockett and all of a sudden they're in the finals."
The Giants' other big chance of notching a win will come in round 19 when they host Melbourne at Skoda Stadium.
Nick Bowen is a reporter with AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Nick
