Injuries and inexperience are no excuse for GWS entering their bye off three-straight losses, says coach Adam Kingsley.
The Giants' poor execution in attack proved costly for a second-straight week as a 13.9 (87) to 7.12 (54) defeat to Collingwood condemned GWS to a 1-3 start to the season on Friday.
Tom Green (ACL) is out for the season while there is as yet no timeline on returns for Josh Kelly (hip) and Darcy Jones (ACL).
Sam Taylor (hamstring), Jack Buckley (concussion), Toby Bedford (hamstring), Brent Daniels (hamstring) and Aaron Cadman (pelvis) have all missed early games.
"I still think we had a good enough team to compete and win tonight," a blunt Kingsley said after Friday night's mach at Marvel Stadium.
After the bye, GWS should at least be able to welcome back the cavalry against Richmond in Gather Round.
"So I'd expect Daniels, Bedford, Buckley certainly, Cadman, maybe Taylor, but probably one more week with him," Kingsley said.
"Ultimately, I'll sit here and say our issues aren't personnel-based.
"It's great to have those guys in and they're really good players, but we're good enough to be better than what we're showing at the moment.
"We're not quite getting our connection done, and we're not quite getting a full game of centre bounce.
"We've got half-a-game last week, we need a full game out of centre bounce. And so they're our issues, not personnel."
Ryan Angwin suffered a burst eardrum in Friday night's defeat but Kingsley was confident he would be fit to face Richmond.
Kingsley put poor goalkicking against Collingwood largely down to poor quality of inside 50s, noting GWS had far often bombed the ball in to spearhead Jesse Hogan, who was held goalless by Billy Frampton.
He was confident the Giants could "really quickly" turn things around.
"It's connection. I thought Collingwood defended well in the moments that they needed to but I think our connection is nowhere near where it needs to be at the moment," Kingsley said.
"It happens in parts of the season. We manage to work on it and fix it. We've done it in the past, and we'll do it again."
