Greater Western Sydney co-captain Luke Power believes the focus on Israel Folau has taken the pressure off the Giants’ many other rookies.
Folau will be one of many GWS players making their senior debuts in the Giants’ first AFL game against Sydney at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night.
Coach Kevin Sheedy, who will blood more than 20 players during the course of their inaugural season, might have to introduce more than he hoped on Saturday.
Veterans Power, Dean Brogan and Setanta O’hAilpin are all unavailable and Tom Scully is also on the injury list.
While the Giants had 11 of the first 14 draft picks, almost all of the attention has been on Folau, particularly since No.1 pick Jonathon Patton underwent knee surgery in January.
The media frenzy over Folau intensified after he was reported twice last weekend, as the football community held their breath wondering if he would play in the Giants’ first game.
Former Brisbane champion Power, who will miss the game against Sydney due to a hamstring issue, conceded Folau’s massive profile had deflected the glare of scrutiny from the Giants’ other rookies.
“Definitely,” Power told AAP.
“Izzy is a big guy and he can take that pressure and his improvement is really good, but we won’t be judging him as anything but a first-year player.
“He’s a first-year player who’s about to play his first game of AFL, so it would be unfair for us to internally have too big expectations on him.
“But we’re hoping he’ll come out and contribute.”
Power said it was hard to evaluate exactly what should be realistic expectations of the Giants.
“We’ve got to just judge it contest by contest and this year is just a year of football education for our players,” Power said.
“We’re going to have small wins like winning quarters, winning contests and hopefully we’ll be able to win a few games so that the players can get some proof that they are improving.”
The 282-game veteran hopes to be fit for the round-two clash with the Kangaroos.
“It’s been frustrating,” Power said.
“My importance will be later in the year to help the boys out when probably the young legs are starting to tire a little bit.
“I’m pretty optimistic that I’ll play most of the year but, at the moment, we’ll let the young guys do the hard yards early.”
