HIS SIDE may be fresh off a bye, but Greater Western Sydney coach Adam Kingsley has plenty to ponder ahead of Friday night's clash with West Coast, including the possibility of resting a "sore" Jesse Hogan for another week.
The Hogan call is one of several selection stories at GWS, which includes a big decision to be made in the ruck with Nick Madden a chance to keep hold of the number one spot over the fit again Kieren Briggs.
Lachie Whitfield has been ruled out due to his concussion, while Stephen Coniglio will return through the VFL after 13 weeks out.
Hogan was a noticeable absentee from the action at Giants training on Monday, watching on in a tracksuit.
Despite having the week off, the club says it is merely a soreness issue and the Coleman medallist may be given an extra week rather than travelling across the country to face West Coast.
"There's a chance," Kingsley admitted after training on Monday.
"He's just a bit sore. It's a long season for key forwards. We think he'll be okay, we'll train him on Wednesday and see how he goes."
Briggs sat out Monday's session as well after training fully the day before and despite being fit to play after missing three games with a toe injury, Madden may keep him out after his impressive start to life as an AFL footballer.
"We’ve been really happy with him (Madden). We'll assess and discuss later in the week. We know what Briggsy gives us when he's up and going it'll be an interesting discussion to see how that plays out," Kingsley said.
Star forward Brent Daniels is still "a while away" after suffering a fresh injury setback, this time to his adductor, but Coniglio will make his long-awaited return from a nerve issue in his glute in a rare VFL appearance against Werribee on Saturday.
A welcome sight at Giants training on Monday was that of injured veteran Callan Ward.
The club's games record holder and inaugural skipper is still waiting to make a call on his future after tearing his ACL in round 12, with retirement still very much the likely outcome.
"We'll sit down in due course and discuss that. Ultimately it will be up to him, whatever he decides, but we haven't planned a discussion around that. That'll happen in the next few weeks, I'd imagine," Kingsley said.
The Giants return from their bye sitting a spot outside of the top eight and under no illusions about the trickiness of their trip to take on a West Coast side that continues to turn the form corner despite only winning once this season.
Andrew McQualter's work at the Eagles in his first season has started to come to the fore from the midway point of the campaign and is serving as a reminder to Kingsley of his first year in charge of GWS.
"I think it's really similar. Once you can start to execute a new game plan under pressure and not think about what you have to do, that's when you know you've turned the corner and I think they've started to do that," he said.
"They were pretty impressive (against Collingwood). They're missing a couple of key players, but were still very strong. We can't just walk in there and expect to win, we need to play our way for a long period of time."