Ahead of Sydney Derby XXXI, Sydney senior coach Dean Cox fronted the media in his weekly press conference.

On Tom Papley

"He'll play, Tom will play, which is great. He got through training last night, pulled up well this morning. I expect him to be back, which is good. He's really important for our footy club, certainly, not only what he does from the football point of view, but the energy he provides our team. He does it a little bit differently than most other players, and he's going to have to do it tomorrow night against a very, very good football team."

On the Derby

"I think one thing the players really enjoy about this battle is they're a really good football team and they always want to test themselves against some of the best teams in the competition and the Giants are that. So, I think that's what gets them up, obviously, the battle of playing a team in your own state adds a little bit of fire and spice to it, but our players are well aware of how the Giants are going and what we need to do to try and beat them."

On Isaac Heeney

"There's always a debate, the thing with when you've got players that can excel in multiple positions is where do you need them at that particular time? What does the team need? That's the thing that Isaac provides us. His ability around the ball is really important, but also if we can't connect centre forward or we've got a lot of opportunities going inside 50 and can't convert, maybe you play Isaac there then. You don't want to put Isaac where the ball's not or what he needs to do for the footy team. It's always a constant debate, he's been in unbelievable form, he prepares really well. He's a huge talent, but he just works so hard, so wherever he is, you know he's going to give it his all."

On the decisions on Heeney and Brodie Grundy's game time 

"I think we needed to, when we're in a position that the last five, six, seven minutes, to be able to, we're in our second six-day break, so we wanted to make sure that the players love short breaks, but we wanted to keep them as fresh as possible as well. There's always a chance when someone's out in the football field something can happen, so I wanted to remove that chance."

On Tom McCartin

"He's been really good, he was in our team meeting this morning. He's been doing his activities and going through the protocols of what will get him back to full training and then play. So, yeah, just the 12 days got really tight, that was right on the limit. Obviously, a Sunday or a Friday night game, so we needed to make sure that he had as much time as he possibly could, but everything he's done so far, he's passed really well. We'll probably see how he goes until he fully trains, we'll go through the process to get him to fully train, and then that will determine when and how quickly he can come back but we are hopeful for Essendon."

On Logan McDonald

"Hopefully, he can do a big session Saturday morning and make himself available maybe for the Essendon VFL game or certainly the one after. So, you know, he's had a horrendous year, he's unfortunately been dealing with a number of things that he's worked his way through now, and he's almost at the end of the tunnel where he can actually have a crack at it."

On facing a full-strength Giants outfit

"That's what we expect, I think they've won five in a row. They're bringing those really experienced players back into the team on their home ground. We expect a very fierce encounter, you know, the players are certainly aware of that, they're prepared for it, and we have to deliver on that."

On the ruck battle

"Oh, a huge battle, you know, I think as well to get some ascendancy in the ball in your front half. That's something that these guys have done really well, Brodie's been in great form. But, yeah, you're up against a team with Briggs in great form and also Tom Green has 16 clearances himself last week, the ability for them to generate ball is really high. So it always is a really good battle and at times can dictate win-loss results, and it won't be any different Friday night."