Greater Western Sydney coach Kevin Sheedy will be on a reconnaissance mission in Melbourne when he attends all four opening AFL finals to fine-tune his knowledge of the modern game.

The four-time premiership coach, whose 27 years at the helm of Essendon ended in 2007, plans to watch as much finals football as possible over the next month ahead of his return to the league in 2012.

"I'll be gathering as much information as I need to, because I haven't coached for a number of years now," Sheedy told AAP.

"So it'll be a fact-finding, knowledge-chasing mission - and then I'll be sharing that with all of our staff here.

"(Giants assistant coach, ex-Port Adelaide mentor) Mark Williams will be up to date with most of that anyway. Some players, as we bring them in, they'll be bringing in different information from other clubs also."

It's unlikely many Melbourne-based sides will roll out the welcome mat for Sheedy ahead of the Giants' maiden AFL season, but he says he doesn't need an official invitation to penetrate a club's inner sanctum.

"I can always talk to a person that's just been cut off a list," he said.

"They don't have to open the door too much for me.

"I'll find a door, I'll find a crack and I'll find the keyhole. That's my job."

Sheedy attracted more interest than most spectators at the round 21 clash between Hawthorn and Carlton when he took notes while sitting in the row behind the interchange bench at Etihad Stadium.

"That was just one simple thing where I got a ticket and thought I'd just seize the moment and grab the opportunity to have a little bit of a look at how they run their rotations, the amount of time on and off the ground they have," he said.

"We'll find that in the record books at the AFL anyway."

Sheedy nominated the increase in interchange rotations as the most striking change to the game since his time at the Bombers came to an end.

Meanwhile, GWS list manager Stephen Silvagni says the club could be an active player in trade week, when they'll boast a couple of aces in the form of four selections in the so-called mini-draft of 17-year-olds in October.

"We're happy for where we're at, at the minute, but certainly we've got trade week to get through as well," Silvagni told AAP.

"There's every chance (we'll be trading some of the 17-year-old picks) but we've still got to negotiate the best deal we can get.

"The positive thing is there's a lot of interest in them and they're really valuable in a lot of ways. They're going to be heavily discussed through trade week."

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