Before they were premiership favourites, before they played in their first final and even before they'd kicked a single ball in the AFL, the Giants had a blueprint for potential success worth following.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Over in Sydney's eastern suburbs sat the Swans – implanted three decades prior in the harbour city during which time they'd established themselves as an AFL heavyweight.
Seven years earlier they'd won a flag, and they were on the verge of another that very season.
"We looked to them five or six years ago and said that's where we have to get to, to that professionalism," recalls Adam Kennedy ahead of Saturday's 12th instalment of the Sydney derby.
"In a way we talk about their club and how well it's run and what they stand for. They're a club that stands for a good brand of footy, contested which is what we try and pride ourselves on."
Kennedy was one of the Giants' best in the first Sydney derby, a 63-point win by the Swans in round one of 2012. The day of Kevin Sheedy's infamous pre-game rev up, and the day the Giants officially began as the AFL's 18th team.
Nineteen players who featured in that first game will run out onto the SCG on Saturday night. Ten of those are Giants, including Shane Mumford who was still a Swan in 2012.
"It was just all very surreal," Kennedy says of that first game.
"There was a lot of excitement. Everyone was just itching to get out there. We got done by 10 goals but I feel like we all just had a ball, just playing AFL.
"As the years go on we obviously want to improve each year and we have gone from trying to stay in the game to being competitive to actually going out to win games and going out knowing that we've got the capabilities of winning games each week."
Just 12 months ago GWS had only beaten their bigger brother once, but a strong finish to 2016 led to a regular-season win, and a famous 36-point victory in last year's qualifying final at ANZ Stadium.
Yet despite the Giants' recent good form, and the Swans' 0-4 record, this still looms as the young club's toughest challenge of the season so far.
They're winless in four attempts at the SCG and Sydney remains one of the powerhouse clubs in the AFL, recent form aside.
GWS co-captain Phil Davis knows his side still has a long way to go before laying claim to being Sydney's strongest club.
"To go past them we'd have to win a fair few premierships," Davis says. "They've won a fair few flags, won two in the last 10 years basically.
"They've got the runs on the board and we're just chipping away trying to catch them and close the gap. Recent form of ours has been quite good but we understand that they're a great organisation and great side.
"We want to replicate them in many ways in terms of the amount of success they've been able to have."
Davis played in that first game against the Swans in 2012.
In a team of 17 debutants he was considered one of the more seasoned campaigners having managed 18 games for Adelaide in the two seasons before.
He was proud of his team's ability to get within 11 goals of the powerhouse Swans that day. The following year at the SCG, the gulf in class between the sides was laid bare as Sydney won by 129 points.
"That was a bad one, that was one of the only days I felt pretty hopeless on a footy field," Davis says.
"They could do whatever they want, they were moving the ball pretty quickly, won everything. It was a tough day I think we made a fair few changes going into that game and we couldn't do anything to stop them, they were just too good.
"That was our first ever game at the SCG against them I think, so it was a pretty rough introduction to the SCG for us."
Adam Tomlinson, another of the Giants' originals, also vividly remembers those early years against the Swans.
"They bullied us a lot early on and a rivalry started from the very start," Tomlinson says.
"No matter what year it was, they've always been this massive and hard competitive team. That hasn't changed until this day.
"They played West Coast in a few grand finals in the mid 2000s and this is season 2017. That's 12 years where they've been a dominant football side.
"Five games ago they played in a grand final. We've won one final. To say that we've gone past them is incorrect really because they're a far superior side in their history of the game."
