There were some wildly inaccurate predictions of Greater Western Sydney's immediate dominance floating around when the Giants entered the AFL four seasons ago.

Much of it was founded in the same glassy-eyed wonder that greets the latest crop of draftees each year, their age and inexperience not given enough weight in the gushing over their sheer talent at junior level.

Yet a few years down the track, that over-estimation was, in hindsight, only half-wrong. The Giants are no longer kids. And with the disadvantages of youth, strength and experience now effectively neutralised, the playing field has levelled. And that talent is starting to win out.

We no longer see as many teams make dramatic rises up the AFL ladder. But GWS is better placed than any rival of recent times to defy the norm, because their list is anything but normal.

There's been plenty of talk about Collingwood's or the Western Bulldogs' bright futures on the back of the maturing of a group of talented rookies. And list managers and coaches insist teams' improvement generally comes with the rise in status of three-to-four-year players. GWS has an entire team's worth of them.

In another three weeks, potentially 10 players who made their AFL debuts with the new club will have passed the 50-game mark.

That list includes the likes of Jeremy Cameron, already an All-Australian, Adam Treloar, Devon Smith, Dylan Shiel, Toby Greene, Tom Bugg, Adam Kennedy and Stephen Coniglio, all among the Giants' very best in last Saturday's thrashing of Carlton.

Three more players still to make it to the half-century – Will Hoskin-Elliott, Lachie Whitfield and Nick Haynes – are already integral parts of GWS's best 22. And two more with games tallies still in the 20s thanks to injury – Josh Kelly and Jonathon Patton – will be when they're fit.

Almost every experienced player picked up from elsewhere – Callan Ward, Shane Mumford, Heath Shaw, Phil Davis and Rhys Palmer the picks – has been a big success. But the maturation of the younger crop has turned a footballing one-bedroom unit into a mansion in a hell of a hurry.

So, almost perversely, notes coach Leon Cameron, have some of those early thrashings, no fewer than nine of which were by more than 100 points in the Giants' first two seasons.

"I think they're pretty motivated. This young side's been through a fair bit, they've been beaten around the ears the first two years," Cameron said after the Carlton win.

"The last half of last year, and the start of this year, they're starting to realise they can compete with a fair few of the sides in the competition. There's a good foundation of experiences of being resilient."

In ladder terms, that has translated from just one win in their second season, to six last year, to five from the first seven rounds of 2015 and a very realistic chance of a finals appearance. And another season of experience across the board has seen GWS's rankings in critical statistical areas soar.

The Giants recruited kids who were already strong of body, with competitive instincts. But three or four years in an AFL environment have made a world of difference. Already this season, GWS's contested ball differential ranking has climbed from 17th to fourth, and their capacity to win possession has seen them rise from a ranking of 13th to fourth.

But the increasing coolness under physical pressure is also obvious from the numbers. The Giants' ranking for scores from stoppages has gone from 14th to fifth and turnovers from 12th to fourth.

GWS ranked only 15th for scores per inside-50 entry last year. That ranking is currently third and the Giants, who kicked their highest-ever score against Carlton on Saturday, are now fourth for points scored behind Adelaide, West Coast and Hawthorn.

If the Giants have a particular strong suit, it's the depth of their midfield, perhaps only Sydney coming close for the number of on-ballers capable of rotating through the centre bounces.

Besides man-mountain ruckman Mumford, another five Giants – Ward, Treloar, Coniglio, Shiel and Ryan Griffen – have averaged at least 10 centre-bounce involvements per game.

And the GWS mids hit the scoreboard hard, too, Shiel, Smith, Treloar and Greene all averaging 10 points or more per game in terms of scoreboard or impact. That's in addition to the key targets: Cameron, the exciting Cam McCarthy and another tall coming fast in James Stewart.

Watching GWS over the first third of this season has been a little like watching a champion junior side transition into an open-age competition, the obvious difference being that these kids were already playing with the adults.

And the longer this season goes, the more it looks like they're ready to do a little pushing around of their own.