BAILEY Brien might joke he brings the desire to outshine his younger brother and that Dylan Furnell brings height, but they'll bring more than that when they line up for the Bathurst Giants in Saturday's AFL Central West season opener.
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Both will bring the passion, determination and skill they have already shown in the charcoal and orange.
Bathurst product Brien and South Australia native Furnell are two members of last season's side which reached the preliminary final who have returned for the 2020 season.
It will be different to seasons past in that not only will it feature nine regular rounds and a top-three finals series, but there are two senior men's tiers instead of one.
The Giants are in that top tier alongside Dubbo, Orange and the Bathurst Bushrangers who they will meet in Saturday's opener.
Both Furnell and Brien agree the Bushrangers go into the contest as favourites.
"You can really only see them being stronger than last year when they won, so it will be a good test," Furnell said.
"Being the reigning premiers they've got some very good players in their side, but we are just looking to be competitive throughout the whole game and see what happens," Brien said.
While the Giants' squad has lost a number of its more experienced players from last season, there are a host of young talents who will step up and are hungry to help the side be competitive.
One of them is Bailey Brien's younger brother Cooper. Asked if there is any sibling rivalry, he replied: "Yeah definitely, pressure's on, but it will be good to play alongside him this year".
"It's good to be able to play alongside him, I haven't done that. I've played cricket with him but not footy, so it will be a bit different this year.
"This year I'm looking for a bit bigger role with a few new people coming through or people who haven't played the code.
"We've got some very good players who have come back given all that's happened, so we're still looking pretty strong across the board. It should be a pretty competitive year."
Furnell, who is expected to spend time in the ruck against the Bushrangers and help feed the on-ballers, is excited to see what the young talents can produce.
In his two previous seasons with the Giants he has witnessed the emergence of a number of teenagers and with this year seeing a 16-a-side format, the energy those young players bring could be even more important.
"It's good to see the young guys coming through continually, every year they just keep coming through," Furnell said.
"I think having those younger guys, it's something a lot of other sides don't have, so it will be interesting.
"There's a lot of space with 16-a-side, those young guys have a lot of run so hopefully they can burn out the other sides every time.
"I think we'll be very competitive, but with the players we've lost I think it takes the pressure off a little bit and we'll see what happens."
Opening bounce at George Park 1 will be at 2.30pm.
