GIANTS coach Adam Kingsley says the rivalry between his club and the Western Bulldogs is real as they get set to face off in one of the biggest games of the round in the nation's capital on Saturday night.
Sparked by the player trades of Callan Ward, Ryan Griffen and Tom Boyd as well as the epic 2016 preliminary final, there has been plenty of feeling in clashes between the two teams.
Coming off the GIANTS' remarkable late rundown of Sydney in the Derby last week and with the Bulldogs winning four of their last five games, Canberra may well play host to another classic edition of the encounter this weekend.
Kingsley admits that he has noticed something a little different in his players' eyes early in the week.
"Yeah a little bit, a little bit. It's a big game," he said.
"Obviously they've had some really strong battles in the past, finals battles. I'd probably suggest outside of the Swans that this is the biggest game that our players play in."
The GIANTS coach hasn't shied away from admitting the need to lock down on an opposition star early in his tenure, either.
He did so in regard to Rory Laird ahead of his first game against Adelaide, which was carried out successfully by his charges.
And he's conceded Bulldogs skipper and superstar Marcus Bontempelli will need to be monitored closely this week.
"We'll certainly have attention on him that's for sure, if you let him run around by himself or allowed to do what he wants he's going to have an enormous impact on the game, so we'll try and nullify that as best as we possibly can," Kingsley said.
But the GIANTS possess several stars of their own that will have the Bulldogs on notice.
Tom Green, Josh Kelly and Stephen Coniglio are all inside the top 15 for possession average in the competition, while the threat of Toby Greene is as large as any player in the game at the moment.
His match-winning ability was on show in a stark manner in the derby win at the SCG and Kingsley is adamant he should be regularly mentioned when discussing the very best players in the AFL.
"I would think he's thereabouts. We play one this week in Bontempelli who is in that discussion also," Kingsley said.
"I would suggest he's (Greene) in that top echelon of the handful of players who are considered the best in the game, for sure."
Greene's last-minute snap against the Swans has lifted the GIANTS' finals hopes dramatically in the early part of the season and their next assignment is trying to snap an eight-game losing run at their home away from home in Canberra on Saturday night.
"I'm always confident. I think if we play our best we can beat anyone," Kingsley said.
"Last time we played in Canberra we played Brisbane, they're a pretty good team as we know but we fought and we were in the game for the entirety of it."
"We've got a strong focus on performing well at home and Canberra is our home," he said.
Keeping the Bulldogs' tall forward brigade in check will be a challenge especially in the absence of All-Australian defender Sam Taylor.
But while it was said last season by interim coach Mark McVeigh that the GIANTS would be in far deeper trouble without Taylor, his absence has been alleviated by the return of Jack Buckley and form reversal of Nick Haynes.
"'Bucks' has been terrific for us, Haynes is back to some of his best form which is great," Kingsley said.
"Callum Brown came in on the weekend for Sam (Taylor) and performed really well so I think we've got a solid group of backline players as opposed to just relying on Sam and I think we're defending as a team rather than just relying on individual players."
