GREATER Western Sydney star Heath Shaw says the Sydney Swans forward line is one of the most potent in the competition but has backed his fellow defenders to shut them down in Saturday's Sydney Derby at the SCG.

The Swans kicked 18.25 in an 80-point win over Collingwood in round one and 20.11 in last week's 10-goal thrashing of Carlton, and have a wide array of scoring options.

With gun talls Lance Franklin (eight goals), Kurt Tippett (four) and Callum Sinclair (three) in form, and newcomer Tom Papley (five), plus an inaccurate Isaac Heeney (2.5) both lively at ground level, the Swans are the number one ranked scoring team in the League this year.

Shaw has started 2016 well after winning the Giants' best and fairest last season, and with co-captain Phil Davis, Aidan Corr and the unheralded Nathan Wilson also in good touch, the 215-game veteran told AFL.com.au that GWS could counter the Swans' dangerous goalkickers. 

"It's going to be a good challenge against quality opposition, but we're confident that what we've done in the last couple of weeks and through the NAB Challenge holds up against the best" he said. 

"We pick players because we know that they can play, and we're backing our tall defenders to at least bring the ball to ground in one-on-one contests. 

"If we don't have the confidence in them then we won't pick them, so we're going to back our six against their six. 

"In the past sometimes 'Buddy' (Lance Franklin) has got a hold of us, but we've matured as a group and our guys are getting smarter about how to defend.

"We look at it like we're defending as a back six, and a goal against us is a goal against our back six, so that's the team first attitude our defenders are going with."

Shaw and Wilson give the Giants two of the best rebounding defenders in the competition, with their speed and ability to carry the footy from deep in defence a serious offensive weapon for coach Leon Cameron.

The 2010 Collingwood premiership defender said the attacking side of his game has been with him since he began his career, even though he joked that "Leon (Cameron) is always talking about this thing called 'defence' which I know nothing about."

Wilson's run off half back has been a revelation in 2016, as shown by the West Australian's performance last week when he had seven inside 50s in the club's 13-point win over Geelong.

Shaw said that the ladder-leading Western Bulldogs had shown just how valuable an attacking defence can be. 

"It gives confidence to young guys coming through to get the ball in their hands and take the game on," he said. 

"You watch the Bulldogs and the way they go about it, they've got confidence and when they get it, they're going hard, and they're backing themselves.

"We want our guys to do that and we want all six of our defenders to get involved, because if two or three aren't then it's like playing with 15 players versus 18. 

"When we have the ball we want our guys to get in positions to attack. We feel that we've got some genuine speed in the back half and we can use that to our advantage."

Shaw was part of the disappointing Giants side that lost the season opener to Melbourne by two points at the MCG, after controlling the game up until three-quarter time.

The Demons stormed home to kick six goals to two in the final term to hand GWS a tough loss, but Shaw said the experience had taught them a lesson and helped his side against the Cats.

Geelong trailed GWS by 24 points with a quarter to play in round two and kicked the first three goals of the last term to cut the margin to single figures, before the Giants steadied thanks to a goal from Ryan Griffen to hold on for the victory. 

"If someone was to offer you a 21-point lead at three-quarter-time, you'd take that every day of the week, but it opens it up for the opposition to just have a crack and let it fly," Shaw said. 

"If they lose by six goals it doesn't matter but if they bang a couple on early, naturally teams will seize up a little bit and go into their shells.

"We learnt from the week before (against Melbourne) that all we need to do is do what we did for the previous three quarters because it worked.

"You just have to stick with what has worked and you can't forget that, when things get tense.

"That's a sign of a group that’s maturing, because seven days later we were able to change the result."