Adam Kingsley buoyed by Toby Bedford and Brent Daniel’s return against Essendon

GWS was riding high following a seven-game winning streak but defeats to the Swans and Port Adelaide have halted their momentum.

Kingsley admits that there hasn’t been one glaring issue over the past fortnight, but rather lots of smaller areas where they’ve been below their usual high standards.

“There’s just a little bit of everything where we’ve just been beaten,” he said.

“Last week against Port Adelaide, we were quite convincingly beaten when they had the ball. They punished us with a big score.

“That’s typically not been us over the past three months. So, tidying up a couple of different little areas within our defence, and getting back to what we’ve been is important to us.

“We’ve played in a lot of tight games, a lot of finals-type games. So, I think the grounding for finals, if we’re good enough to make it, is really strong. This game against Essendon will be no different.”

Kingsley agreed with co-captain Josh Kelly earlier in the week that the Giants are essentially in consecutive elimination finals from this Saturday.

Both GWS and Essendon are set to welcome back key players this weekend that will be crucial for their run home. For the Giants in particular, the return of tenacious duo Brent Daniels and Toby Bedford is set to be a spark for their high-pressure game.

“I’ll be a lot more confident with those two upfront being able to do what they’ve been doing over the past three months, but even longer than that,” he said.

“Since Toby’s come into the team, he’s been the number one pressure forward in the competition. So, he provides that sort of game style for us which we like to play.

“And Brent is recovering really well from his hamstring issues and he’s continuing to build so we know how damaging he can be in that space.”

The clash could double as Daniel Lloyd’s final home game after he announced his retirement on Thursday.

The 31-year-old will play his 19th game of the season this weekend, the most he has played in a year in his career.

While he’s still playing footy at a high level, a desire to spend more time with family sparked his decision. And Kingsley has already sensed it has given his teammates a boost for the two remaining games of the regular season.

“It did catch a few people by surprise,” Kingsley said. “But once he started chatting and explaining the reasons, talking about his family, it became pretty evident he was ready to move on.

“He’s quite an important player for us, so we’ll miss him, but we’ve got him in the short term, so we’ll try and do our best for him.

“Certainly, at today’s training session, it was a lot about Lloydy. And it provided a little bit of energy to the group I think.”

Originally published as Adam Kingsley buoyed by Toby Bedford and Brent Daniel’s return against Essendon