And Smith believes the fact Giants spearhead Jeremy Cameron can have a quiet game and they can still win shows how far they've come since joining the AFL.

Smith was expecting a tough encounter with Richmond at Manuka Oval on Sunday, despite the Tigers being out of the finals race.

The 23-year-old was remaining coy on the Giants' finals prospects, even though they probably only need to beat the Tigers to book their spot in September.

Smith has picked Johnson's brain since he moved north to Sydney at the end of last season, even though he felt they were different players.

While Johnson plays like a small forward, Devon said he was a lot taller making them different beasts.

But the pair both like a goal and Smith has established himself as a handy goal sneak after just four AFL seasons.

He's kicked 77 goals in his first 86 games and kicked a couple of crucial goals in the Giants' victory over Port Adelaide last week.

Smith is fully over his knee injury that required surgery and made him miss 11 weeks.

"Stevie, you can't really put a value on him. His on-the-field and off-the-field stuff, he's just like a coach out there," Smith said on Friday.

"I'm still trying to figure out what he's doing half the time, but he's a genius.

"We're pretty different [players] - he's about 95 kilograms and 189 centimetres [and I'm 75kg and 174cm] - but he does play like a small. I've just tried to pick his mind as much as I can."

Full-forward Cameron has kicked 38 goals this season, while Jonathon Patton has kicked 19 as the centre half-forward continues his return from back-to-back knee reconstructions.

While Cameron is averaging about three goals a game both this season and last, the Giants are going to their spearhead a lot less often.

According to Champion Data statistics, they went to Cameron 33 per cent of times they went forward in 2015, but that has been cut almost in half to 17 per cent.

Instead they're sharing the load between Cameron, Patton and Rory Lobb almost equally.

They now average 9.3 goal kickers per game, which is number one in the AFL, up from 7.4 last year.

"Jez can have a quiet game and then you look at the stats and he's kicked four and you wouldn't even know he's played," Smith said.

"I think there's been games where Jezza's been held goalless and if that was in the first two years there's no way we would've won, but we're still winning with him not dominating."

Returning from a hamstring injury, Ryan Griffen didn't train with his Giants teammates on Friday due to illness, but GWS coach Leon Cameron was expecting him to play.

AFL ROUND 19

Saturday: GWS Giants v Richmond at Manuka Oval, 1.45pm. Live on Fox Footy.