Giants chief executive David Matthews said the club would be "comfortable" playing AFL finals in the capital as it closes in on a maiden play-off berth.

But the Giants' immediate focus is turning their remarkable AFL success into a big crowd in Canberra for their third and final regular-season game at Manuka Oval.

The Giants are targeting a sell-out crowd for their clash against Richmond on Saturday, with more than 12,000 fans expected at the venue.

It's a major boost as crowd numbers drop for all sporting codes throughout Australia and will be the third time the Giants have filled Manuka Oval in their short history.

It comes a week after miserable weather ruined the ACT Brumbies' hopes of a big crowd at their Super Rugby quarter-final and 9000 supporters watched the Canberra Raiders in a golden-point thriller in the NRL.

"It's always good to be playing a really big club like Richmond," Matthews said.

"Last year when we sat with Andrew Barr, we went to the AFL and we wanted to try to target Richmond as one of our opponents and bring a club like Richmond to Canberra.

"... Our competitors are Richmond, Hawthorn, Sydney Swans – I don't see us as competing with rugby league or rugby union.

"I think it's great for the people of Canberra to have an AFL team in the Giants with a 10-year commitment, and it's great that you've got the Brumbies and Raiders there, too. In an ideal world, it would be great to see everybody strong."

The finals-bound Giants will be looking to continue their strong record at Manuka Oval, having dropped just one game at the venue in the past two years.

They are the baby brother on the Canberra elite sporting landscape and hope to grow their supporter base by luring three-time defending premiers Hawthorn to Manuka Oval next year.

"There's absolutely no doubt our boys love playing at Manuka," Matthews said.

"The surface is outstanding, the atmosphere is very good, particularly when it's sold out, so we're hoping to see plenty of orange. But it's something we aspire to, [to] be the AFL team for the people of Canberra 365 days a year.

"The package of games this year has been outstanding. When you look at Geelong – who's going to finish in the top eight, [and] Port Adelaide and Richmond who are both expected to challenge this year. So we've had a very strong fixture, but I can tell you that the players absolutely love playing at Manuka."

Canberra has a 10-year deal with the Giants worth $2.3 million a season for the club to play three premiership games and a pre-season fixture in the capital.

Matthews said in June Manuka Oval was an option for a finals venue and reiterated the Giants would be "comfortable" playing finals in the capital, but played down the prospect of shifting another game to Canberra as the club gears up for a premiership charge.

The Giants are eight points behind ladder leaders Hawthorn, but are part of a logjam of six teams on 48 points.

"We're still to absolutely cement our place in September, so we just want to get that extra win or two to make sure we lock it in," Matthews said.

"We see our home grounds as being Spotless Stadium and Manuka. We don't get to make the scheduling decisions for finals, that's for the AFL to determine, but in the event that they saw from a fixturing point of view that Manuka made good sense, we'd be comfortable."

Matthews said the Giants hoped to secure the triple-premiers Hawthorn for a regular season fixture in Canberra in 2017.

"I'd really love to see Hawthorn come and play in a home-and-away game next year," Matthews said.

"We'd love to see Hawthorn, being such a powerful club. We want to bring the powerful clubs through Canberra on a bit of a rotational basis, and Hawthorn's a club that we'd be looking at next year."

AFL

Saturday: Round 19 – GWS Giants v Richmond Tigers at Manuka Oval, 1.45pm. Tickets available at Ticketek.