The first eight weeks have been far from perfect for the expansion club, underlined by Kim Green's season-ending knee injury in round five, but seven wins from eight starts have Fitzgerald's side sitting as equal second-favourite to win the competition.

One of the Giants' strengths has been their scoring distribution. English import Jo Harten leads the way with 234 goals, while goal attack Susan Pettitt has 148 and Kristina Brice has landed 74 from the bench.

It's the best spread of goal scoring in the competition and underpins one of the league's most versatile forward lines, yet for all of their attacking prowess, Fitzgerald is targeting further improvement after the Easter break.

"We've probably exceeded our expectations a little bit – I didn't expect to be leading the table halfway through the season by any means," Fitzgerald said.

"Having said that, we're looking to improve in quite a few areas and we know we're not playing as well as we can and should.

"We're very good at patches in a match, but we're not great at sustaining it.

"We still under pressure, make silly errors and sometimes our ball retention isn't as good as it should be, but it's getting better and it's something that we'll continue to work on.

"It's a fantastic league and the competitiveness of the matches shows that. You could never go into a game feeling it was one of the easier games."

Green's injury has forced Fitzgerald into more tinkering with her mid-court.

Pettitt has spent time wearing the wing attack bib, while veteran Sarah Wall has joined the club and played the last two games.

Fitzgerald said the Giants were still coming to terms with the loss of Green.

"That was shattering for everybody," FItzgerald said. "I said once before I always had great admiration for Kim, but I think it's doubled in the last couple of weeks – she's been amazing.

"She hasn't missed a session. She's active and helping at training, she's giving encouragement to the girls, she's helping me out with the mid-court. Her presence has been really positive.

"I'm sure behind closed doors she has moments where it's very upsetting for her, but publicly and in front of our team and everyone, she's just been amazing."

Melbourne Vixens have jumped into outright favouritism to win the initial Super Netball competition following last weekend's thumping win over Adelaide, while Sunshine Coast Lightning are also heavily favoured to challenge the Giants.

Both of those teams are a point adrift of the Giants on the ladder, while the pre-season favourite Magpies have clawed their way up to fourth spot after a stuttering start to their campaign.

"From day one I've been an admirer of Sunshine Coast," Fitzgerald said when asked who the biggest threat was to the Giants this season.

"They've built a very, very competitive team, they've got depth across the court and they play a really lovely style of netball."

The Lightning have been bolstered by spearhead Caitlin Bassett in the shooting circle, and she leads the way this season in Super Netball with 350 goals.