The exemplary professionalism of GWS vice-captain Stephen Coniglio is rubbing off on some of his younger teammates with teenager Jye Caldwell pushing hard for an AFL first-round debut.
Midfield dynamo Coniglio starred in Saturday's 22-point pre-season win over Sydney, accumulating 35 possessions and ten tackles in addition to goaling after just 22 seconds.
"It doesn't come unexpected, I've never seen anyone train like he does," new Giants senior assistant coach Matthew Nicks said of Coniglio.
"He's elite with everything he does so he deserves to come in and play really well in these games.
"We knew he'd have some good form coming into today and it's a credit to him for the way he trains.
"Hopefully some of our boys get a taste of that and see how he goes and follow his lead."
One player Nicks said was doing that was 18-year-old Caldwell, the Giants top pick at No.11 in last year's national draft.
With midfield stalwarts Jacob Hopper and Josh Kelly not having a run until next week's final pre-season hitout, against Adelaide, Caldwell took the chance to display his range of skills.
He kicked two goals and racked up 14 touches in a promising performance.
"He's a super footballer, it's going to take a while to settle into the speed of the game,' Nicks said of Caldwell.
"But it's a second game now in a row. We played a practice match against Sydney last week and he played really well in that, was one of the standouts for us, just his inside work and his body work.
"For a young kid he puts his body on the line and his teammates love that."
Asked if Caldwell was a chance of playing the round-one game against Essendon, Nicks said "yeah, he would be, and it's a hard midfield to get in.
"Hopper didn't play tonight, we're managing him into next week, we've still got Kelly to come in next week as well but, look, he's put his hand up, that's the best you can do and he's given himself a chance."
