Giants Netball captain Kim Green believes the pressure is on the NSW Swifts to improve ahead of their Super Netball season-opening Sydney derby on Sunday.
The Giants host the Swifts at Qudos Bank Arena looking to get their season off to a strong start.
They will be buoyed by the absences of England wing attack Natalie Haythornthwaite and young goal defence Kate Eddy for the Swifts, ruled out with hamstring and groin problems respectively.
Former Australia international Green, from Miranda, will lead the Giants for the third consecutive season.
In that time, the Giants have comfortably finished above their cross-town rivals. In the competition's inaugural season the Giants finished third, 13 points clear of the Swifts in sixth.
The Giants won the minor premiership last season before being eliminated in straight sets in the semi-finals to miss the grand final. The Swifts again finished sixth.
And Green told the Leader there was pressure on the Swifts to catch the Giants.
"I think [there's pressure on them to improve], absolutely," she said.
"When Rob [Wright] had them first year [they were] such a young team, I know from girls in that team who were thinking 'we don't want to be known as a young team. We want to be a team that's feared, don't play us down'.
"They've continued to say that to this day and they've had three years with essentially a team with the same players.
"They've had a few players rewarded with Aussie squad call ups. A few players in the Aussie Fast 5s. They've got experience now. They've had Maddy Proud stepping into the captaincy who was an Australian under-21s centre, a future Diamonds centre and still can be. They've got some real quality players there because they've kept that team together which is pretty cool."
The derby concept has grown in Super Netball over the first two years. For the Giants and Swifts it is an unusual situation given they train next to each other almost every day.
Sutherland Shire product Green said she was a fan of the rivalry which would continue to evolve.
"It has been really cool. With the Swifts back in the day they were always such intense games. You weren't just playing netball to win but to be the best in the state," she said.
"Essentially now we train right next to them on different courts. We see each other every day. You want to get out there and have a good game and a win against the Swifts. It's a really important confidence boost for the team. The cool thing is the last few games have been quite tight and physical so I'm really looking forward to it.
"Our changerooms face theirs. We know when people are on monitored loads and things like that and they're the same. We have an insight into each other.
"To be honest when we first started very much trying to fit two teams into one city it was quite interesting. Now there is really a sense of respect and understanding that we're both here for business but also under the same Netball NSW brand."
The Giants have added the 2018 grand final's most valuable player Caitlin Bassett from premiers Sunshine Coast. And Green said the Giants' mentality was to take the final step and win the title for themselves this season.
"We absolutely want to win the title," she said.
"When we first got the team together we had a really good chat and one thing we wanted to strive towards was to have a team that sticks around for a good three years together.
"It's a building process [but] who wants to do pre-season for six months just for a building year? Essentially we wanted to stick around and be successful for a number of years.
"It's really exciting, we've got a real confidence after pre-season. If anything maybe we won't be rated as highly as we have previously which might be a good thing."
