Greater Western Sydney coach Leon Cameron won't be panicked into rushing players back into the AFL "marathon" after admitting his side are in a form slump.
The Giants suffered successive losses for the first time this season after going down by 25 points to West Coast on Saturday at Spotless Stadium.
GWS have won only one of their past four and have averaged just over 60 points a game across that stretch.
Compounding the form loss is the growing injury toll, with Matt de Boer (hamstring) likely to miss next week's game against North Melbourne and key defender and co-captain Phil Davis suffering concussion in the Eagles clash.
All-Australian star Josh Kelly might be one player in contention to come back next week after missing five games with groin soreness.
"Kelly has had a really good week-and-a-half, two weeks, but we've got to be really mindful of when we brought Toby (Greene) back in - maybe it was a little bit too early," Cameron said.
"When you are down on form and struggling a little bit, there's always that decision that you reach out for some of your players that are coming back from injuries and whether you go down that track.
"But we've got to be really careful of that. If he's not right, he's not right,
"It's only round eight and we want to make sure these players are playing some really good footy through that middle part of the year.
"It's a huge marathon, we know that and, right now, we've had a couple of little blips in the marathon."
Cameron lamented poor disposal efficiency and decision making by his side.
"When you're in form, clearly you make better decisions. We're out of form and we're making worse decisions," he said.
"But as long as you do not compromise on some of the other areas of the game that you are chugging along pretty well, then it will turn.
"We've got to work on our decison making we've got to keep staying positive because it's deflating when you actually turn the footy over.
"But there's no excuses you've just got to keep hanging in there.
"We're going through this form slump at the moment. I'm really confident we can come out the other end."
