There isn't an official team name change on the horizon - yet - however new Giants head coach Adam Kingsley said there might as well be a hyphen there.

That's how bought in he and the entire club are in adopting Canberra as their "second home" as the $28.5 million partnership with the ACT government extends another 10 years.

"Branding is not my area, but that's how we view it anyway," Kingsley said. "We view it as if there's a hyphen.

"Everyone loves coming down here, we've just got to win here too - it's as simple as that.

"We haven't been successful over the last couple of years so our challenge now is to try and re-establish Canberra as our fortress so the opposition fear coming to our second home.

"The closer we can have both cities see themselves as our home, the better off we're going to be.

"That's what we're trying to build and we've got another 10 years down here to do it, which we're excited about."

Orange-clad AFL supporters came through the gates at Alan Ray Oval in Ainslie on a sunny Saturday to watch the Giants in their intra-club match.

It officially kicked off the start of the new Canberra deal which will bring at least three AFL games and one pre-season hit-out to the ACT every year, as well as up to two AFLW games, multiple clinics, school visits, and other community engagement activities.

The scoreboard saw the charcoal team full of AFL starters defeat the VFL-listed orange team 21.23 (149) - 4.7 (31), and Kingsley was pleased with what was on show as he strives to bring back "the orange tsunami" that got them to the 2019 AFL grand final.

"Our summer has been spent introducing a new system of play, and the roles within that system, and what I really wanted to see was everyone implementing that, and for the most part, we were really good," the coach said.

"Every time it was in contest everyone really competed hard on both sides of the ball, which was good to see.

"The opportunity was there to hold your spot or win it."

Harry Himmelberg played a starring role with five goals, Jake Riccardi nailed four, and James Peatling and Daniel Lloyd each had three, while their exciting young forward and number one draft pick Aaron Cadman had three behinds.

Tom Green had a game-high 50 disposals a day after inking a four-year extension to remain a Giant until the end of 2027.

"I thought Jacob Wehr on the wing was strong, James Peatling up forward was great, Connor Idun was excellent behind the ball with intercepts, Tom Green in the middle and Finn Callaghan early were dominating the game," Kingsley said.

"Fans are going to look forward to bringing the orange tsunami back to life this season.

"We're probably going to have good weeks and bad weeks with that, but we'll just persist and play an exciting brand of footy that is tough around the ball, but really well-structured with a hard-nosed defence.

"That's the team I want to coach. It's fun to watch and it's fun to play."

The Giants' pre-season ramps up with a game against the Gold Coast next week at Blacktown.

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