The GWS Giants have confirmed they will play the North Melbourne Kangaroos at Manuka Oval in the AFL's pre-season tournament.
The ground is emerging as a fortress for the league's youngest side with the Giants winning all three of their games there this year with two being in front of sell-out crowds.
Their presence in the capital is part of a 10-year, $23 million deal with the ACT government but the Giants' strong relationship with Canberra is greater reflected in their first ever Friday night game to be played at Manuka Oval next year.
The pre-season match against the Kangaroos in the rebranded JLT Community Series will also be played on a Friday night, on March 10.
"We love coming down there," Giants general manager of football Wayne Campbell said.
"The players love playing there, it's a really great ground with a brilliant surface and we've got an emerging supporter group there that will make it a pretty good atmosphere."
Sports fans were in awe of the sun setting behind the picturesque Manuka Oval during the one-day international cricket match on Tuesday and the 5.50pm timeslot will hopefully provide a similar snapshot in March as well as the round six game against the Bulldogs.
Campbell said taking on the reigning premiers for their first ever Friday night game in Canberra is "as good as we could ask for".
"We won all three games last year and we certainly treat it as a home venue and we want to make it a solid fortress that other teams have to come and travel to," Campbell said.
"We're starting to build that with having a good competitive side on the field and a really loud boisterous orange crowd in the stands."
The pre-season fixture pits Canberra's Giants against Canberra's former team the Kangaroos.
GWS' inaugural coach Kevin Sheedy urged Giants fans to "boo the Roos" when they played in the capital in 2014 after North Melbourne walked away from its partnership with Canberra.
The Kangaroos spent nine years playing regular games at Manuka Oval before walking away in 2006.
But Campbell said Canberra is firmly theirs now and the Giants have a stronger bond here than any other club has had in the past.
"We would like to think we've really invested in the community with everything we've done at the academy and having some really strong connections down there," Campbell said.
"It's an absolute long-term deal for us as a club and one that we see as a competitive advantage for us as we've shown with the three wins and two sell-out games in the last year so we'd love to aim for three sellout games this year and three wins as well."
The Giants will also play their cross-town rivals the Sydney Swans in Blacktown during the pre-season competition, as well as the West Coast Eagles at Narrandera.
JLT COMMUNITY SERIES
WEEK ONE
Saturday February 18
GWS v West Coast, Narrandera Sports Stadium, 2.05pm AEDT
WEEK THREE
Friday March 3
GWS v Sydney, Blacktown International Sportspark, 7.40pm AEDT
Saturday, March 4
WEEK FOUR
Friday March 10
GWS v North Melbourne, Manuka Oval, 5.50pm AEDT
