Home-ground advantage used to be somewhat of a theoretical concept for AFL expansion club Greater Western Sydney.
Some 6875 fans were on hand to witness GWS tackle West Coast at former base Blacktown Oval during the Giants' maiden season in 2012.
Even in last year's preliminary final at Spotless Stadium, the Giants' supporters were drowned out by a sea of success-starved Western Bulldogs fans dotted throughout the crowd of 21,790.
But that is unlikely to be the case on Saturday, when the Giants host the Eagles in a semi-final.
The round-22 fixture between the same sides attracted a crowd of 15,751 to Spotless - a record for the venue outside derbies and last year's final.
"Hopefully there's 25,000 there and we can put on a real good show," GWS veteran Heath Shaw said.
"Early days it wasn't much of a home-ground advantage, when you're losing most weeks it doesn't help. It's great that western Sydney has jumped on board."
Jacob Hopper, a GWS academy product who was drafted in 2015 and recently re-signed, agreed.
"Our crowds are getting bigger, stronger and louder," Hopper said.
"Last year's prelim we got beat on the park and probably our supporters got beaten as well by the Doggies' fans.
"But they're obviously getting more passionate about us."
Brett Deledio, who played in front of massive crowds at Richmond prior to joining GWS in last year's trade period, admitted last week that Spotless offered a "bit more intimate" atmosphere.
"You're certainly not turning up to the MCG and 95,000 are there," Deledio said.
"But the people who are there, you know a lot of them by name, you know who they are and their support is as strong as anyone's.
"It's just there isn't as many of them because we're in our infancy as a club, we've been around six years as opposed to 150."
There will be a code-war subplot playing out on Saturday night.
Week one of the NRL finals were marred by low crowds at Allianz Stadium. Cronulla's elimination final against North Queensland was watched by a crowd of 16,115, while 15,408 attended the knock-out clash between Penrith and Manly.
Parramatta host North Queensland at ANZ Stadium, a torpedo punt away from Spotless. Kick-off in the NRL final is 7.40pm AEST, 15 minutes after the opening bounce in the AFL game.
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