GWS Giants youngsters Devon Smith and Taylor Adams heading home - just for the weekend

SIMONDS Stadium in Geelong is one of the hardest places for a visiting team to play.

SIMONDS Stadium in Geelong is one of the hardest places for a visiting team to play.

But for GWS Giants youngsters Devon Smith and Taylor Adams it will be a welcome trip home to a place that moulded their budding careers.

The pair have taken to the AFL like ducks to water and they have the football "factory" that is the Geelong Falcons to thank for it.

The club is an Aussie Rules equivalent to European football giants Barcelona and Manchester United.

A who's who of football have cut their teeth there, including Gary Ablett, Jonathan Brown, Luke Hodge and Jimmy Bartell. Smith and Adams look to be the latest in the long list of Falcons success stories.

On Saturday there will be mixed feelings when they return to Geelong to take on the Cats.

"Really excited to get back home and play in front of family and friends, to play against guys I idolised growing up,"Adams told The Daily Telegraph.

The pair won't have to study too many tapes to get a handle on the Cats' stars.

They have spent much of the past five or six years watching them strut their stuff on the way to three premierships in five years.

"Everyone says it's an away game but it feels like a home game to us," Smith said.

Adams said: "I've always been a massive Joel Selwood fan. I really like the way he plays his footy. He's tough and has some polish as well."

Smith and Adams have been thick as thieves since they were 12, when they both represented Victoria for the first time.

They were even drafted together at picks 13 and 14 last year when the Giants had 11 of the first 14 selections.

Geelong Team of the Century player Michael Turner, who has run the Falcons for all 21 years of their existence, has watched the pair grow up together.

"Smith is a smaller version of Nathan Buckley," Turner said.

"He's not kicking goals at the moment but he'll kick five one day because he used to do it here."

The Falcons have missed the finals just once in those 21 years but Turner's main job is producing AFL players.

Currently they have 50 on playing lists around the country and 30 of those took the field last weekend.

Smith has missed just one of the Giants' matches this season, when he was rested.

Adams, who made his debut in round five, has looked like he belongs since recovering from a back injury.

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