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Giants skipper Toby Greene has worn many descriptions during a career remarkable for the brilliance of his football but also the angst he has caused himself and his club at different stages.
But the 30-year-old, who led the Giants with such distinction in 2023 that he was named All Australian captain, has matured into a fine mentor of men according to teammate Josh Kelly.
“I think Toby … it is his passion but it is also his ability to want to see the players get better, to help the younger boys, to build relationships, but also be himself along the way,” Kelly said.
“He’s a very authentic leader in that sense.”
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The Giants begin their bid for a maiden flag in a season-opening game at home on Saturday night when they host reigning premiers Collingwood in what is a highly-anticipated clash.
Greene, a dual-Kevin Sheedy Medallist, is tasked with driving the Giants another couple of steps forward in 2024 after they reached the preliminary final in Adam Kingsley’s first year of coaching.
After sharing the captaincy with Greene in 2022 before serving as his deputy last season, Kelly sees similarities in the way the Giants skipper and coach approach the game.
“I just think they’re both just incredibly passionate in their own ways. They are both very driven to be the best at what they do,” he said.
“They’re both very authentic in the way they conduct themselves. So when you combine those things like authenticity and competitiveness with hunger, passion, I think that’s probably the words that sum them up the best.”
The Giants were a revelation under Kingsley last year when playing a style of football branded the ‘orange tsunami’ that saw them ride a wave back into flag contention.
They were ferocious in their ability to win the football and create opportunities in attack, but were also able to restrict the number of scoring opportunities enjoyed by their rivals.
Inconsistent early when winning three of their first ten games, the Giants surged into the finals before falling short against Collingwood by one point in a thrilling preliminary final.
Despite the heartbreaking finish, Kelly said the Giants had taken a “lot of good stuff, to be honest” out of the entirety of the 2023 season.
“We went into the year with a lot of high hopes but not really knowing what to expect,” he said.
“Obviously the first half of the year, we were creating a game plan, learning that game plan and trying to implement it over four quarters. Ultimately what happened is that we were inconsistent, but we also expected that at the time.
“By the end of the year, to have to have a bit of momentum with the way we wanted to play and to see results on the back of that, to play in a preliminary final, again, ultimately, it didn’t go our way, but there is a lot to build on, so we’re really excited by that.
“And we have spent the pre-season focusing on a lot of similar themes and trying to dial that in.”
The 29-year-old, who travelled to Los Angeles, Austin and New York in the off-season to view some American sports with some teammates, is confident the Giants are more than capable of contending again.
“Little bits and pieces will change because there’s probably only so much you could focus on last year when we were trying to implement the whole game plan,” he said.
“We were trying to get the fundamentals in place. Largely we feel like those fundamentals are in place now, but it is about adding little things and like I said, refining it, adding little bits and pieces.
“Obviously we want to take it up a notch as well. We’ve got a lot of belief in our game plan, in our system, the people within that and the coaches, so yeah, we have just got to go do it again.
“It’s not just going to happen for us. That’s probably the thing you could worry about after seeing it click the way it did last year, you might just think it’s going to happen again.
“But it doesn’t work like that at AFL level (because) everyone’s fighting for the same thing, so we have got to come back hungry and do it again.”
Kelly, meanwhile, has proven remarkably durable since signing a lucrative eight-year contract reportedly worth $1 million per season late in 2021 when his future was the subject of intense interest across the competition.
“It was definitely a bit of a whirlwind of a time with everything going on with that,” he said.
“But it definitely didn’t change anything (in terms of my approach to footy). Ultimately, I wanted to be the best player I could be and the Giants wanted that from me as well.
“We’re a very system-based side and I play my role to the best that I can within that system, trying to make others around me better, and hopefully, we can all help each other out.
“But I feel like I’m in a really good spot. And I feel like the team is in a great spot.”
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