IT WAS a nervous start to Ryan Griffen's career as a Giant.

Much has been made of the former Bulldogs skipper's shock defection to GWS at the end of last season, with Griffen himself admitting he may have retired at the end of last year had a trade deal not been struck.

He started the pre-season strongly at the Giants.

Showing no signs of the back injury that restricted him in 2014, Griffen dominated against Gold Coast in the NAB Challenge with a 31-disposal display.

But it wasn't a dream debut for the former Bulldog in his first official outing for the Giants on Sunday, despite his side registering a nine-point win over the Saints.

Set the challenge of running with Griffen, Saints youngster Maverick Weller didn't give the midfielder an inch.

Griffen was restricted to just two touches in the opening term and while he worked his way back into the game he still only finished with 15 disposals, 10 of those handballs.

Coach Leon Cameron admitted after the game it was a nervous first outing for the experienced midfielder.

"I thought he was well tagged by Weller," Cameron said.

"He's still working out that connection that he has with our players and when we shift him forward we want him to have that impact as well.

There's no doubt there is a lot of nervousness in your first game … him and Joel [Patfull], as much as they have 10 years of experience, you could clearly see they were nervous playing for their new club."

With Griffen tagged out of the game, it left the door open for Giants midfielders Adam Treloar (32 disposals) and Dylan Shiel (28 disposals) to run free.

The pair was instrumental in the Giants' round-one win over the Saints on Sunday, sharing 13 clearances between them.

"We knew [Griffen] would be sat on," Cameron said.

"The advantage of having Ryan in our team is that Adam Treloar and Dylan Shiel now pop up. This time last year they would have been sat on, so [Griffen's] going to go through that, but he's done that for probably the best part of seven or eight years."

Along with the performances of Shiel and Treloar, Cameron was pleased with how the Giants' forward line functioned.

The absence of spearhead Jonathon Patton, who is recovering from another knee reconstruction, was compounded by the loss of Tom Boyd in the off-season, but the Giants weren't short on key forwards against the Saints.

The Giants had seven different goal scorers. Jeremy Cameron kicked four, while emerging youngster Cam McCarthy booted three in his second game for the club.

The coach said it was important for the team to find multiple avenues to goal instead of relying too heavily on 22-year-old Cameron. 

"We don't want to be just that one player focus and that was the great advantage of last year," Cameron said.

"As much as Jeremy struggled with his body, we had a number of players contribute to the scoreboard and we need to make sure that when six forwards go into a game they all look dangerous and all have their moments.

"We're going to continue to work with it and we've got some exciting young forwards. Cam McCarthy, young James Stewart, who's had an injury interrupted pre-season, will start to build and no doubt find his way into the team at some stage as well, but other avenues are so important."

The Giants face Melbourne next Saturday at StarTrack Oval.