This is our house: Kelsey Griffin's Canberra Capitals defend home court

But does co-captain Kelsey Griffin know exactly how many consecutive home wins they're shooting for on Sunday?

"You'd know better than me," Griffin laughed.

"I try to take it one game at a time really. I still feel like you've got to respect each game and each opponent.

"We don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves. Without sounding too cliche, every game is kind of a big game in the WNBL this year."

The magic number is 17 - but Canberra will only get there if they can topple the Southside Flyers at the National Convention Centre.

So when Griffin says every game is a big one, perhaps this one is more so than any other. It's a top of the table clash against the Flyers, whose lone defeat came at the hands of the Capitals.

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It's Leilani Mitchell returning home intent on tearing down the fortress she helped build.

It's a showdown of international stars - on one side sits Capitals quartet Griffin, Marianna Tolo, Kia Nurse and Olivia Epoupa. On the other sits Mitchell and Opals teammates Jenna O'Hea and Sara Blicavs.

It's one of the league's most parochial fan bases combining to provide the Capitals' answer to the Canberra Raiders' famous adaptation of the Viking clap.

A pre-game lightshow is the latest ace up Canberra's sleeve as the defending champions push to set the bar on fan engagement.

The Capitals are encouraging fans to download an app called Cue and open it up following the pre-game national anthem when the lights go down inside the venue to create "a blackout situation".

At that point all phones with the app open will sync up with a high-pitched tone only the phones can hear.

A slideshow featuring Capitals players will then begin playing on phones while the lights on the back of phones will all flash in time.

Capitals operations manager Dan Jackson says the Viking clap's impact on the Raiders has almost "changed their entire business".

"We're hoping people can get behind this and this can potentially become something the Capitals make their own," Jackson said.

"You saw how successful the Viking clap is for the Raiders, it kind of changed their entire business.

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"It's something new we're trying that hopefully everyone can get behind."

It looms as a way for the Capitals to further embrace their fans with an average of 1361 attending home games in Canberra this season.

"Our crowds have been awesome. Not only are people showing up, but they're loud," Griffin said.

"That's so important in this game, it's a game of runs and a game of momentum. To know we have our fans behind us is huge.

"You want to defend home court and for us, it's about continuing to get better and continuing to improve.

"I don't think we have even come close to reaching our potential yet.

"So as much as it is respecting an opponent like Southside, it's also about us making sure we are continuing to improve and learning from our mistakes."

Of those, a perfectionist like Griffin could find many if you asked for her opinion during a Capitals video review session.

The 32-year-old is rarely satisfied. She enters every game with a mindset of the Capitals starting from scratch. When the final buzzer sounds, she wants them to be 1-0.

"We know we've had some pretty close games as well. We only beat Melbourne by three points, we only beat Townsville at home by two points," Griffin said.

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"There has been some pretty close calls, but for us, it's a good thing that we have been tested in close games.

"There hasn't been a whole lot of blowouts in our season this year so it's a matter of being able to execute down the stretch and get stops when you need it.

"There's still a lot of things we can clean up defensively, and sometimes we rely on our offence too much.

"If we get our defence going like we need to, then I'll feel a little bit better."

WNBL ROUND NINE

Sunday: Canberra Capitals v Southside Flyers at National Convention Centre, 5pm. Tickets from Ticketek.