IF THE 2017 fixture can be taken as a guide then the Western Bulldogs versus Greater Western Sydney might become the AFL's next great rivalry.

The two clubs last year staged one of the all-time great preliminary finals and have been scheduled for two Friday night games in 2017, one of which will be the first prime-time game to be played in Canberra.

Entering their sixth season, the Giants are looking for another rivalry apart from that with the cross-town Sydney Swans, and they're happy to be mixing it with reigning premiers as the rest of the country pays attention.

"No doubt there is a rivalry there," GWS coach Leon Cameron told AFL.com.au this week. "In our short history there have been players who have come to our footy club and players from our club who have gone there."



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But it is more than just former Dogs such as Callan Ward and Ryan Griffen now entrenched with the Giants, or million-dollar recruit and former No.1 draft pick Tom Boyd, who ditched the Giants after one season and starred for the Bulldogs in their breakthrough Grand Final win last year. Cameron himself spent 17 years at the Bulldogs as a player and assistant coach.

"I think the most important part of the short rivalry that is building is that we both play a pretty aggressive style of footy and hopefully we play good footy games against each other," Cameron added.

"To have two Friday night games – home and away – is phenomenal for us. To have a Friday night game in Canberra against the premiers is fantastic. It means we're growing as a club and the game is growing in New South Wales.

"But then the return bout at Etihad Stadium (in round 21) gives us a great opportunity to feel the atmosphere of Friday night football in Melbourne and we're up against the best side in the competition," he said.

The Giants lost by six points to the Bulldogs in the epic preliminary final at Spotless Stadium last September. Cameron took the players through an extensive review of the match in great detail, but waited until early December after they returned for the start of pre-season training.

"Basically, what came out of the review was that the Bulldogs lasted the distance a little better than us. At times we were lucky to stay in the game and they taught us about hard, finals football.

"It was probably one of the games of the year in terms of two young sides having a crack, but key statistics will show they controlled the game for far longer periods than we did," he said.

Cameron went to the following week's Grand Final wearing two hats – that of the vanquished preliminary final coach but also as a Bulldogs life member. The disappointment that the Giants weren’t taking part was real, but so too was his delight for the Bulldogs.

"It was a bitter pill to swallow because we wanted to be there; everyone wants to play in a Grand Final and those that say they don't are kidding themselves.

"But you get over the disappointment. Watching the Bulldogs, what it meant to that footy club of which I'm a proud life member, what Luke Beveridge with that club did was extraordinary.

"The Dogs breaking away with seven minutes to go to win the premiership they hadn’t won for a number of years was good for footy and that footy club," he said.



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Many expect that the Giants will feature in the Grand Final this year and the betting markets have installed them as firm premiership favourites, although Cameron has been around the block enough times not to be seduced by public expectations.

"What happens at the start is not what happens at the end. When they set the market for the Melbourne Cup 10 months out is not how it plays out at the end," he said.

However, there is an expectation within the club of real improvement and Cameron said the players have embraced that. Part of it will be because his talented group of players in their third to sixth seasons will continue to blossom with another 20 games under their belts.

But the harsh lesson learned last September should also come into play. "I'd like to think we'll improve because we now understand what it takes to work hard and last the distance from minute one to 120," he said.

"We were really consistent last year and we won a lot of quarters. Unfortunately, we lost more close games than we won so we need to address that."

When asked to pinpoint one part of the ground where he expects to see progress, Cameron nominated his backline.

"We took another step to make it hard for teams to score against us, but we have to take another step again.

"When you have players with an ability to move the ball and make really good offensive decisions, you also have to counteract that with better defence and that's an important step to take."