HE'S THE unofficial leader of Greater Western Sydney's burgeoning mosquito fleet forward line and after an unusual method of rest last week, Brent Daniels says he's ready to go for Saturday's monstrous Derby with the Swans.
Daniels experienced the extremely rare situation of being an unused substitute in the Anzac Day win over Brisbane in Canberra as the Giants chose to rest his sore knee.
He's now confident he's ready to go to take on the Swans at the SCG.
"Yeah, I should be. Obviously, we've got a few things to tick off to make sure it's feeling really good, but there was no real major injury. It was just a bit of a knock, so I should be right to go," Daniels told AFL.com.au.
"It's definitely unique," he said of his unused sub role.
"Mostly I was ready to go. But once we kicked away, I understood that I probably wasn't going to come on, so it was actually quite boring towards the end.
"I had a bit of a niggly knee up through the week from the Carlton game, so I was always pretty touch and go to play. A couple of weeks ago he (coach Adam Kingsley) marked this game as one where it might be a good time to get a rest in for me.
"When Toby (Greene) got suspended we had a really young forward line, so 'Kingers' just spoke about wanting me to be there to add value to the team, but as a sub in case the game's really close and we need a spark, so it was a bit of a unique one," Daniels explained.
In Daniels' absence, a new name was added to the Giants' fleet-footed forward line in speedster, Darcy Jones.
The first-round pick from the 2022 National Draft had 15 possessions on debut and kicked two goals to go with seven score involvements.
Along with Daniels, Toby Greene, Toby Bedford, Harvey Thomas and Xavier O’Halloran, Jones is a new name added to the bevy of Giants small-forward talents.
"It was great to see him get his chance to play. Internally, we already knew how good of a player he is going to be for us, so it was nice see him get his reward. He's obviously a really quick, talented player and he grabbed his chance with both hands for sure," Daniels said.
"We've gone from a couple of years ago only having probably one or two, to now where we've got probably five or six of us that can play there.
"We don't really have a real induction (for Jones), but we think we're going to be a bit of a threat going forward. It's good to have a couple more small boys with me," Daniels added.
With heavy rain forecast for Saturday’s SCG clash, the role of the diminutive operators in attack like Daniels will quite possibly carry even greater importance.
And their high-class defensive acumen will likely need to be on song as well with Sydney’s array of ball users out of defensive fifty in Nick Blakey, Oli Florent, Jake Lloyd and Matt Roberts in excellent form this season.
"Yeah, it's always a big challenge against the Swans. They've got some really good players across half-back that link up and run and carry, and they’ve got really good kicks in their backline too," Daniels said.
"As a forward-line group, and in particular our smalls, it's going to be really important for us to put a whole lot of pressure on, chase our opponents and put them under as much heat as possible, because we know when they get that game up and going they're really hard to stop," he added.
With both clubs undoubtedly in premiership contention, Sydney Derby 27 between second and third on the ladder is one of the biggest ever.
Especially for Daniels who hasn’t appeared in any of the Giants' three finals against the Swans.
"They're always big, but I think this week's really unique, we're both six and one, we're both going really well. We know it's always a really fierce battle and I can't wait to get out there and see how we go and test ourselves against one of the better teams again."
