IT'S THE three-reason plan Greater Western Sydney has spent the last five years organising, and the last month enacting. Whatever you do, though, just don't call it a rebuild.

To many observers, the Giants' off-season has felt like just that. In parting ways with veterans Jesse Hogan, Jake Stringer, Lachie Whitfield and Kieren Briggs, and having lost the services of captain Toby Greene to free agency, the club saw 1088 games of experience walk out the doors.

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Greene aside, though, those list decisions were made by the Giants. While the club's long-serving skipper turned down a competitive three-year deal to stay, the same offers weren't extended to Hogan, Stringer or Briggs, while Whitfield received a tap on the shoulder leading into the trade period.

They were calls made nearing the end of a five-year period spent targeting the draft, and the culmination of a season where Adam Kingsley's side finally looked its age. He presided over one of the AFL's oldest and most experienced lists in 2026, which fell out of finals contention to finish with a disappointing 10-13 record.

But behind the scenes – perhaps overlooked due the team's success, which saw it make a preliminary final in Kingsley's first season in 2023, then finish fourth and fifth in 2024 and 2025 – the Giants have been hitting the draft. They've had 10 top-25 picks across the last four years, and hold selections No.9, 20 and 26 this year.

So, the club's list management group – led by executive general manager of football Jason McCartney and head of talent Adrian Caruso – made the tough calls on a group of much-loved veterans, confident in what was coming through.

"We had decisions to make," Caruso told AFL.com.au this week.

"If we kept Hogan, Greene, Stringer and Whitfield, we would've gone into next year with as many guys over 32 as Geelong and Collingwood. We didn't think that was a fair reflection of what we wanted to be. We know internally the young talent that we have and we need to give opportunities to them.

"We didn't want to do this one year too late. We wanted to try and get ahead of it. What people don't realise is we've had 10 top-25 picks in the last four years, which is more than any other club in the AFL.

"Those guys are all still with us, they're bubbling away, not many people would know them yet, but if we didn't give opportunities to those guys then they're probably going to leave – maybe next year in the compromised draft period – and we'd be hanging onto guys who might help us for one year, maybe two.

"For us, we felt as though that would have been a lose-lose situation. So, everyone is looking at what we've lost. But we're looking at what's coming in, which is quality players returning from injury and hungry young kids ready to step up. Just because we're going to be young, it doesn't mean we can't be good."

Giants' draft haul

That was the first reason for the Giants' recent period of spring cleaning. The second, but clearly the most significant, was the incoming arrival of Tasmania and the subsequently diluted draft periods that will follow when the Devils do finally hit the scene across 2027 and 2028.

Had the club stuck, rather than twisted, the older players likely would have stayed in Kingsley's plans. The younger players likely would have grown frustrated by yet another development season in the VFL, and potentially could have been lost to explore opportunities elsewhere. They would have done so for little return, given Tasmania will dilute the draft pool from next season.

"We've been planning for Tasmania," Caruso said.

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"That's why we've taken so many early picks in the last four years. This year, we wanted to do it again. That's great. We enter with picks No.9, 20 and 26. But we're not just doing it for this year. It's more because of the confidence we've got in the young players that we've already brought through.

"If you want to talk about specific players … if we kept Jesse Hogan, then Max Gruzewski would have left. If we kept Kieren Briggs, then Nick Madden would have left. If we kept Lachie Whitfield, then we wouldn't have had the chance to develop Joe Fonti, Harry Oliver, Oskar Taylor, James Leake.

"Those defenders might have left in a year's time, the same as when Lachie might have left as a free agent. But we feel like we've been the ones controlling these decisions for the football club, trying to have success in a three to five-year window rather than just a one to two-year window."

The third and final reason was the summer that lies ahead. Not only are the Giants hopeful of finalising long-term extensions for 2027 free agents Tom Green and Lachie Ash by Christmas, but next month they will also likely welcome talented Academy prospect Ethan Matthews through the doors.

It's touch-and-go whether Matthews attracts a rival bid before the Giants are due to select at pick No.9, but the club is confident it will be able to recruit the classy 186cm midfielder regardless. Hailing from western Sydney, he represents an important and valuable player for the long-term future of the entire football club.

Green and Ash are just as important. The Giants have lucrative seven-year deals on the table for both amid significant interest from Tasmania and Victorian rivals, having prioritised their signatures over extensions for any of the veterans that departed across the last month.

"Obviously, our priority is to re-sign Tom Green and Lachie Ash and some of these decisions were also made with that in mind as well. That can't be forgotten," Caruso said.

"We've got a core of guys that we think are going to be here for the long-term and our priority is to retain them. None of the guys who left us were players who would've been at the club for longer than two or three years."

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So, can the Giants still contend? Yes, they just lost three different club best-and-fairest winners. Yes, they lost their captain, four All-Australian players, a former Coleman Medal winner and their leading goalkicker from this year. But the club is still confident it will be among the challengers.

The star power – led by Green, Ash and other talents like Sam Taylor, Aaron Cadman, Finn Callaghan, Brent Daniels and Connor Idun – is still there in abundance, while there remains the belief that the youngsters, even those not yet seen at AFL level, can raise the floor.

"You need everything to go right. This year, we didn't have much go right," Caruso said.

"I don't like to put a ceiling on where we could get to. We know that we haven't built it to be peaking next year. I think that's fair. But also, we look at Fremantle's list demographic heading into last season and our list is in a very similar spot.

"It will end up coming back to how well our leaders and our best players perform. You look at Taylor, Ash and Idun as elite-level defenders, Green, Clayton Oliver and Callaghan as elite-level midfielders, Daniels and Cadman as elite-level forwards. That's our quality.

"If those guys play at their best and the young players develop, we feel like we can challenge. But it's bloody hard to go all the way. We also don't want to build this to peak for one year.

"If we had kept these older guys, there might have been a perception that we were trying to pinch it next year. But we felt as though we'd already done that with that group. We kept trying to win year on year. So, when you finish 12th and you've got older players out of contract you need to make some changes.

"We feel like we're helping for the long-term."