Greater Western Sydney defender Adam Tomlinson says it's a privilege for the AFL's youngest club to have a target on its back and be in the unfamiliar role of being hunted.
Saturday's home win over Essendon lifted GWS to top spot for the first time in their five and a half seasons as a senior club.
They have hit the halfway stage of their home and away program with 9-2 record, having reeled of four successive victories.
It's a far cry from their first three seasons when they reached halfway with one, nought and two wins respectively.
"It is different," Giants foundation player Tomlinson told AAP on Monday.
"A lot of teams are out to hunt us down, but that's sort of a privilege.
"We take that as it comes and it just shows we've got to play our best footy next week to stay at the top of the table.
"It is nice to be there, but if you have a look at the games that have happened within the last six weeks, we scrapped home in three of our games and without that we wouldn't be sitting here.
"Obviously we're in a a pretty good position for the halfway mark of the year but the mindset hasn't really changed to the years previous.
"It's not as if we've put more focus on later in the season."
The Giants face bottom two sides Carlton and Brisbane in the next two rounds, either side of their bye.
GWS have won as many games in the first half of 2017 as they did in their first three seasons combined.
Over the past month they added to their growing list of club milestones by finally completing a full set of AFL scalps by beating both Collingwood and West Coast for the first time.
"We started at the very bottom and the club has definitely grown a lot since I first started with 15 of the other boys who are still here," Tomlinson said.
"It's been amazing for us to be the start of something new.
"To pass those little milestones has been a great sort of reminder for us to show how far we've actually come each year and a sense of accomplishment as the team grows"
THE RISE OF GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY - HOW THE CLUB HAS PERFORMED AT THE HALFWAY STAGE OF EACH AFL CAMPAIGN (WINS/LOSSES)
*2012: 1-10
*2013: 0-11
*2014: 2-9
*2015: 7-4
*2016: 7-4
*2017: 9-2
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