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McConnell said the Giants had worked on building connection between the forwards and the rest of the team throughout the week, in an attempt to give the team more thrust into the forward 50.

"One thing is giving the forwards more opportunities, but it’s also about the forwards being where they need to be when we do bring it out of defence," he said.

The midfield battle will be crucial with the Kangaroos fielding the AFLW's reigning best and fairest player Emma Kearney and the Giants relying on AFL Players Association’s MVP Courtney Gum, while South Australia rep cricketer Britt Perry will also make her debut with the Giants in the midfield.

"It should be a good contest in the middle of the game so I look forward to seeing how that goes and I look forward to the competition," McConnell said.

As one of two new teams in the AFLW, the Kangaroos made a strong entrance to the competition last Sunday with a resounding 36-point win over Carlton - the weekend's only dominant result in a round that saw all other matches decided by less than a goal.

"[They're] quality opposition ... they’ll come up here feeling pretty confident after the way they played on the weekend," Giants midfielder Alicia Eva said. "But we’ve reviewed [the game] and we’ll go over what they did really well last weekend, and then we’ll look to nullify."