GREATER Western Sydney will look to target a small forward this off-season as it manages a tight salary cap full of emerging stars.
The Giants have been major players in recent exchange periods, and will aim to again be busy this off-season to continue to build their young and exciting list, which sits in the top four with six weeks to go in the home and away season.
The club's new list manager Craig Cameron told AFL.com.au's Road to the Draft the Giants were working through the challenges of a decreasing cap while finding ways to add to their list.
"We do have a situation where we have to reduce our numbers because of the introductory rules, and we have a reduction in our cap to bring us back into line with other clubs. There is a tightness, but it's manageable," Cameron said.
"We'll be pretty open to improve our list."
An area the club has identified as needing bolstering is in its group of small forwards.
Jarrod Pickett and Paul Ahern, who were top-10 picks in 2014 and were likely to start in the front half, are yet to debut and will continue to nurse season-ending injuries for the rest of 2016.
The Giants have been linked to Fremantle star Michael Walters in a possible deal involving Cam McCarthy, and Cameron said the club could boost that area.
"We probably need to improve our defence from our forward line," he said.
"I think the ball sometimes comes out of our forward 50 a little bit quickly, and we play three talls up there which makes it a bit difficult.
"If we could find a defensive small forward that would be good, but at the moment we're winning with the structure we've got. That might be an area we'd look to improve."
Cameron said the club has kept in close contact with McCarthy, who has moved back to Perth, and said the young forward is "as healthy as he's been, which is terrific".
He admitted it was difficult to put a trade value on McCarthy but confirmed both West Australian clubs had shown interest in the 21-year-old goalkicker.
The Giants have a number of young players yet to re-sign for next season, including injured defender Caleb Marchbank and midfielder Jack Steele.
Cameron said the Giants are a "good chance" to retain Steele, and said the focus will be for Marchbank to get the required treatment on his shoulder injury before talks progress.
A decision is also yet to be reached whether veteran Steve Johnson will play on in 2017.
"I think we just need to let the season play out and see how Steve feels at the end of that," Cameron said.
"Pre-season is a long thing, but also … it's a cliché that you're retired forever but it's a fact. We just need to let it all play out.
"He's been terrific. He's bobbed up at important times in some games – in the [Western Bulldogs] game he kicked a couple of goals that only Steve Johnson can kick, and he's been a pretty good organiser of the forward half so he's been pretty important for us."
