Goodsell made his debut in the top flight on Saturday against undefeated competition leaders the Bathurst Bushrangers, he and his fellow Giants pushing them all the way in a 14-13-97 to 12-10-82 result.

While Goodsell was given his chance due to the absence of more experienced Giants, it was an opportunity he made the most of. He left an impression on coach Mark Kennedy.

"I think he's going to be just as good as his brother Jack is, so look out," Kennedy said.

"He got players' player and kicked his first goal and he played in ressies and got players' player in that as well. So he's had a Saturday out."

Hayden Goodsell was one of a number of young Giants who impressed in the Bathurst derby, Will Sloan also booting his first major in tier one.

Though the Bushrangers ultimately posted their third win of the season against the Giants, Saturday's match at George Park 1 was easily the best Kennedy's men have done against them thus far.

They'd lost the first encounter by 124 points and the second by 64.

"It was a good contest and look, we were lucky they didn't kick accurately in the last quarter, they kicked seven behinds, but we beat them for two quarters," Kennedy said.

"We won the second quarter and we won the third quarter and in the first quarter, if we had kicked more accurately, we would've been right in it.

"The belief in the squad after the game has really spurred us on a bit. I've been saying for a long time don't worry about these losses, just stick at it and narrow the gap and we've done that each time we've played them."

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In the opening quarter the Bushrangers booted seven straight majors to take the lead, but in a pleasing sign for Kennedy his side also had seven scoring shots against the frontrunners.

The second term then saw the Giants outscore the Bushrangers by 13 to have them well in the contest at the long break at 9-1-55 to 6-9-45.

The margin narrowed further in the third quarter and while the Bushrangers finished the stronger of the pair to extend their winning streak to eight, the Giants had plenty of positives.

Kennedy was delighted to see his side match the Bushrangers in terms of physicality while there were other aspects of the game he felt his side won.

"We wanted to up our accountability around the football and at the end of it we looked at our stats and we won the in and under stuff, the hotly contested football. We won the ruck contest, but they just kept momentum flowing off the outside possessions, they moved it a little bit better than us into the forward line and got a few more shots on goal," he said.

"I reckon we matched them all game, there were just a couple of little things that didn't go our way which we couldn't control.

"On the ground we had some really dominant players that stood up and they're only going to get better. We had had three kids in their teens in that squad ... I think 75 percent of our squad was under 25.

"We've still got guys like Bailey Brien to come back, Nic Broes to come back into that side, Paul Jenkins to come back into that side, Josh Broes to come back into that side then you throw Lenny Hayes in the mix, who knows what will happen?"

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