THE Giants may be competitive on the field but when it comes to the MCG grandstands Saturday night’s preliminary final will be the most lopsided battle in the game’s history.

With fewer than 3000 tickets bought by the GWS faithful on Monday, the Giants will have just a couple of battalions to take on the Tiger army.

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All public tickets were sold out by the close of business on Monday with Richmond fans expected to contribute up to 90,000 of the expected 95,000 crowd.

Despite the overwhelming odds, the Giants newly re-signed superstar in the making Josh Kelly says he can’t wait to soak up the atmosphere and hostility generated by the yellow and black hoards as the Tigers go searching for their first Grand Final appearance since 1982.

“I’m excited,” Kelly said.

“I’m looking forward to the challenge. There’s going to be a big Richmond crowd there but the opportunity to play in a prelim at the MCG is unbelievable. It’s what you play footy for. There’s no doubt we’ll address the group (about the hostility) and tell them to expect that, but we can’t wait to get down there.”

media_camera Giants fans will be massively outnumbered at the MCG on Saturday.

While Kelly is looking forward to the challenge, he will have never faced a more intimidating sight in his life. The biggest attendance the young star played in front of is 61,000 in last year’s qualifying final at ANZ Stadium against the Sydney Swans.

Only three GWS players have experienced anything like what they will face on Saturday night at the MCG.

Heath Shaw played in the 2010 and 2011 Grand Finals with Collingwood, Steve Johnson played in the 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011 Grand Finals and Callan Ward played in the 2009 and 2010 preliminary finals with the Western Bulldogs.

Aidan Corr and Harry Himmelberg played their first finals this year and had taste of what is to come in the qualifying final against the Crows at Adelaide Oval.

But Tim Taranto is in for a rude shock after playing his first final last week against West Coast at Spotless Stadium in front of just 14,865 fans. Remarkably, the teenager can’t wait to absorb whatever the angriest fans in the AFL can dish up.

“It will be awesome even if they’re against us we can feed off their energy,” Taranto said.

“You have to try and beat the crowd, that’s the best way to look at it. It gives you extra motivation to try to silence them.”