He played his first VFL game well before the formation of Cold Chisel and has been every bit as enduring as Jimmy Barnes, but this year it all comes to an end for Kevin Sheedy.

Barnes’s Working Class Man would be a fitting anthem for the final tour of Sheedy, the famed `back pocket plumber’ in his playing days at Richmond.

He also did his time, in Puckapunyal rather than Vietnam, prior to coaching Essendon to great highs and espousing western Sydney.

Sheedy doesn’t want his 29th and final AFL/VFL season as head coach to be just about him or his highlights.

“I’ve got Essendon a number of times this year, and Richmond in my last game up here. That’ll be good,” Sheedy says of the two most emotional goodbyes ahead.

But it’s inevitable Greater Western Sydney’s transition from baby to toddler will pale in comparison to Sheedy’s final bow.

The 65-year-old will finish with seven premierships, four as coach and three as player, countless headlines and outside-the-box ideas, and over 1000 games of elite football experience.

And, Sheedy hopes, a few more victories.

“It’s ridiculous to say we’ll definitely get five or six wins. You’d love to think we could, but you just don’t know,” he said.

“We’ve got to get it in the forward 50m more often, and do better when we get it in.

“We’ve been working very hard on our basic skills. We’ll be a much better side.”

GWS made an encouraging start to life in the AFL, exceeding expectations with two wins and most notably their contested-ball mantra.

Every pointer suggests they’ll improve in 2013.

The No.1 draft pick from 2011 Jonathon Patton now has a pre-season under his belt.

With the Israel Folau experiment over, Patton will roam the forward line with Jeremy Cameron.

Toby Greene, Dylan Shiel, Adam Treloar and Stephen Coniglio will have more mature bodies after impressing last year, while the likes of 2012 No.1 pick Lachie Whitfield will be added to the midfield mix.

Tom Scully and Callan Ward, the men controlling the engine room, are yet to enter their prime.

But as Gold Coast learned in 2012, that doesn’t necessarily translate to vast improvement.

Sheedy has always been cautious with comparisons between the league’s two expansion franchises.

But he can’t wait to see what his talented young charges dish up after their first taste of AFL.

“To see how they handle the next step. (Playing) the 12 to 30 games, or the 25 to 30 games,” Sheedy replied when asked what excites him most about his swansong.

“Most of them won’t be as nervous as last year.”

With a focus on rotation and sharing experience, Sheedy handed out 36 debuts last year, netting a record eight Rising Star nominations.

He’s quick to declare spots in the team won’t come so easy in 2013.

“They’ll have to put their hand up. Play well and earn a game,” Sheedy said.

“There were some players we were giving games last year to blood them.

“There’ll be less of those opportunities this year.”

Make no mistake, Sheedy is thinking about GWS’s future. He is now as much an orange-and-charcoal man as he was a red-and-black icon.

But as opposed to last year, in which a frustrated Mark Williams exited, the club’s coaching transition plan is definite.

Successor Leon Cameron has been signed, sealed and is already delivering as the Giants’ senior assistant coach.

And Sheedy? He ain’t worried about tomorrow.