GREATER Western Sydney is confident it has the form required to back up its stunning round one victory over the Sydney Swans with another strong performance when the teams meet at the SCG on Saturday night.
Given zero chance by most of upsetting the Swans back in March, the Giants stormed home to secure a 32-point victory, their first over their cross-town rivals in five attempts.
The Swans are now a very different prospect to the side that turned up in round one, currently on a nine-game winning streak and holding the mantle as outright premiership favourites.
Once again the Giants are rank outsiders with the bookmakers, but they're taking no notice of that, coming off the first winning streak in club history with victories over the Brisbane Lions and Carlton.
That has given GWS unprecedented confidence and the third-year club knows the importance of now showing that round one result was no one-off.
"Absolutely," coach Leon Cameron said on Wednesday. "It is (important).
"Our last four weeks have been pleasing because we've been really competitive.
"The last two weeks, the back-to-back wins, are a reward for the hard work we've put in.
"It's a great chance to take that form into Saturday night against a side obviously in red-hot form."
Jeremy Cameron (ankle) trained well on Wednesday and is a chance of returning, but Tom Scully (hamstring) will miss at least another week.
Phil Davis will play his third senior game back from the serious kidney injury he suffered in round one and will likely get the job of trying to quell in-form Swans forward Lance Franklin.
Franklin has kicked 21 goals in his past five games, but Leon Cameron knows the superstar is far from the only problem he will confront at the SCG.
"He's an awesome player and he's in terrific form," Cameron said. "But he's just one of a number of players up there.
"If you just concentrate on Franklin, you let (Sam) Reid go. If you concentrate on Reid, you let (Mike) Pyke or (Tom) Derickx or (Adam) Goodes go.
"They've got a number of talented players up there that can play some great footy.
"The Swans are very, very well rounded, forward, back and mid, but we feel as though we're making some significant ground as well in those areas.
"It's a great opportunity."
While the Giants will have their hands full with the Swans on Saturday night, longer term they face a looming issue of trying to hang on to their large stock of blue-chip talent.
Cameron, Adam Treloar, Dylan Shiel and Stephen Coniglio are among a host of young Giants coming off contract at the end of 2015, with a number of clubs already circling.
But nothing breeds confidence in the direction of a football club more than winning, something fellow expansion side Gold Coast is currently discovering, with the majority of its talent showing faith in the Suns' direction.
Leon Cameron expects his players to follow suit in the coming months.
"Winning and being competitive in any environment makes it enticing to stay at this footy club," he said.
"We understand where we've started. We've taken a lot of young kids from Melbourne, South Australia, Western Australia, Queensland, and brought them here to start a club from scratch.
"I think people sometimes don't realise how hard that is.
"Our players are gaining energy every day they walk in this football club and winning and being competitive helps that.
"I expect a number of our players to put pen to paper in the back end of this year."
