They've matured physically, and Saturday's appearance in a preliminary final against the Western Bulldogs is testament to that fact.

But they've hardened mentally too, perhaps to a level not yet seen in a core of AFL youngsters after what seemed an endless journey of embarrassing floggings and poor facilities.

Forget the draft assistance, salary-cap concessions and talk of the Giants' manufactured success. Something very real has been instilled in western Sydney.

It's why the original underage selections in Jeremy Cameron, Nathan Wilson and Dylan Shiel are still at the club. And its why most of their teammates plucked from the 2011 draft have swatted away rival interest and still wear the orange and black.

GWS had 11 of the top 14 picks in 2011 and eight of those chosen to relocate to the AFL's newest frontier are still Giants. Of that batch, only Dom Tyson, Liam Sumner and Taylor Adams have moved on, and none of them have played in a final since doing so.

The original list build was not easy.

It's not uncommon for AFL clubs to visit prospective draftees, speak with them and their families and try to ascertain whether or not a particular player would be a good fit at their club.

Director of coaching Alan McConnell did this with several of the Giants who have helped steer the club to its maiden finals appearance this season.

He vividly recalls the day he and then head of recruitment Neville Stibbard visited Cameron at his home in Dartmoor, population less than 300, to try and sell him the Giants story.

"He got offered two contracts on the same day, he was offered a contract to be one of our 17-year-olds and he was also offered a contract to be a part of the AIS Academy program," McConnell said.

"Jeremy's a pretty knockabout kid with no real expectation or understanding of how good he might be.

"Our approach is probably pretty different to most. In the early days particularly, probably to a degree we still do it that way now, rather than go to visit kids in their homes and have them present to us why we should be taking them, the truth is the shoe is probably on the other foot a little bit.

"We were selling the club to them, giving their parents confidence that we could bring them to Sydney and look after them.

"It was perceived that western Sydney was the wild west and probably the last place that you'd want your son to go and live at 17 years of age."

And rightly so at the time, certainly from an AFL perspective.

When it all began the Giants trained on a baseball diamond and not rolling an ankle was just as important as getting a kick.

The football department was run in the rather congested confines of the Rooty Hill RSL Club, and McConnell moved office four times in his first year alone.

"It was a bit country football club-ish in the early days in lots of ways," McConnell said.

"We were nomads over the summer because we couldn't get access to a ground without a cricket pitch.

"It required a degree of creativity on our part but equally because those guys didn't know any different, they didn't know whether that was the norm or not.

"We also had a very young coaching group. That worked really well too because if our coaches were coming from experienced background in the competition at that level then that could've easily led to an agitation on their part.

"What we've always been really good at is playing what's in front of us."

What's in front of them now is a red-hot Western Bulldogs awaiting at a packed Spotless Stadium, with a place in next weekend's grand final on the line.

It's taken just five seasons of AFL football to get to this point. When the Giants sat down in the early years and asked where they wanted to be after five years, their expectations certainly didn't factor in such rapid advancement.

CEO David Matthews said the club is still moving the goal posts in terms of its ambitions.

"It's changed significantly and pretty quickly from when you look at the early years when Kevin Sheedy used to measure our progress based on how many quarters we'd win for the overall season," Matthews said.

"This year we were absolutely determined that we'd make finals. Probably to make the top four exceeded our expectations but as soon as we did the football department internally reset their expectations and said how deep can we go.

"I remember when Steve Johnson joined the club he said we shouldn't have an objective of making the finals we should have an objective of winning a final because he said winning a final takes care of making the finals.

"To beat the Swans in front of 60,000 was probably the best day in the club's history."

That six-goal win two weeks ago was built on a fierce attack on the football and the player, and was spearheaded by the youngsters who have been at the club from the start.

Cameron kicked four goals against the Swans, Coniglio and Shiel laid 19 tackles between them and Nick Haynes expertly patrolled the half back line.

The good news continued just days later when Coniglio signed a contract extension keeping him at the Giants until 2019. It was a significant moment, locking down another original for years to come and keeping that vital nucleus together.

GWS is now on the verge of a decade of success as an AFL powerhouse, something that seemed impossible just three years ago when they spent their Septembers dissecting the floggings they'd been handed in those early years.

"I'm not sure if it manifests itself in a drive to succeed, what it does is it connects them as a group," McConnell said.

"Because they've had common experience, they are connected. They all share an understanding of what it was like.

"In a way it's part of our DNA, that you just deal with whatever it is that you're given."

The original youngsters still at GWS

Jeremy Cameron – 2010 underage selection

Nathan Wilson – 2010 underage selection

Dylan Shiel – 2010 underage selection

Jonathon Patton – 2011 National draft pick 1

Stephen Coniglio – 2011 National draft pick 2

Will Hoskin-Elliott – 2011 National draft pick 4

Matt Buntine – 2011 National draft pick 5

Nick Haynes – 2011 National draft pick 7

Adam Tomlinson – 2011 National draft pick 9

Toby Greene – 2011 National draft pick 11

Devon Smith – 2011 National draft pick 14

Tom Downie – 2011 National draft pick 56