Wright's new-look team led throughout against their star-studded Sydney rival in the Super Netball opener before fading in the final quarter and succumbing to a five-point loss, a performance that left the coach pleasantly surprised at just how far his reassembled squad had come.

The club's rebirth is progressing nicely after six players departed following last year's narrow grand-final loss and the ambition to make finals this season already looks to have usurped that to simply be competitive.

But Wright knows Saturday's gutsy showing will mean nothing if his side fails to bring the same intensity to the Qudos Bank Arena against an Adelaide side buoyed by its thrilling last-quarter comeback to defeat West Coast last weekend.

"It's one game and we've just got to keep making sure that we continue getting better because the last thing you want to do is have a good game like that, especially a young group, and then come out thinking it's all going to happen this week," Wright said.

"The beauty of a group like we've got is that when they're young and there's not much experience, they probably have less expectation but they also have zero fear.

"They go out and they just play, they're not hampered by what could happen or what might happen. That's always the upside of such a group because they'll just take it on.

"The downside is making sure they don't just think it's going to happen again without the work.

"My thinking was we were probably a little bit ahead of where we thought we'd be on the weekend and that hasn't changed."

The Swifts led by five points midway through the third quarter against the Giants before Julie Fitzgerald called a tactical time-out and tinkered with her team, throwing Kristina Brice into the goal circle.

Brice scored 20 goals from 22 attempts and the plucky Swifts couldn't quite match their opponent's final-quarter output.

Adelaide experienced a similar first-round clash on Sunday, and trailed by seven goals at one stage in the third quarter before fighting back for a five-point win.

"Adelaide were ruthless in the last quarter, they were exceptionally good at just hassling," Wright said.

"They just showed how quickly a game can turn on its head and we saw that in our own game, in reality there was probably a four or five minute patch right at the end where they got over the top of us.

"To me it's just about making sure that we get consistent with what we do. There were patches where we were really good and hence we got five [points] out.

"The difference between experience and less experience is those teams can probably bury you in those moments where we're learning to just make sure we can continue to compete."

The Swifts-Thunderbirds game kicks off a Super Netball double-header at the Qudos Bank Arena where the Giants are also in action against West Coast Fever.