GWS coach Adam Kingsley believes patience is key when judging the contribution of key forwards Aaron Cadman and Jake Stringer.
Stringer was held goalless in their 32-point loss to the Western Bulldogs, while Cadman only hit the scoreboard once.
The pair have a combined goal haul of 10, with Jesse Hogan leading the Giants with 17 from just four matches.
While conceding the heat was on all his players leading into Sunday's derby against Sydney, Kingsley insisted Cadman and Stringer weren't underperforming.
"I've been really liking Aaron Cadman's game. I think he's presenting as good as anyone," Kingsley said on Friday.
"He's hard to play on so I've been liking his games particularly.
"The reality is those guys have played three or four games together, in total with Jesse (Hogan) and Toby Greene.
"We need to be a little bit more patient with those guys. It's not just going to be a click of the fingers and it's all sweet."
Kingsley's Sydney counterpart Dean Cox faces similar issues in attack following the forced absences of Tom Papley (heel) and Joel Amartey (hamstring).
Key forward Will Hayward looms as the likely figure to spearhead the Swans, leading his side with 10 goals from seven games.
"We need Will and we need Hayden McLean ... we need them to take control of their area," Cox said.
"It's the middle tier players that we need to perform at a level.
"They've played 80, 100, 150 games, so they know the standard.
"That's one thing that we've mentioned to them, and hopefully they do it this weekend."
The Giants, already without small forward Brent Daniels and veteran Stephen Coniglio, have lost vice-captain Josh Kelly to a hip complaint.
Midfielder Kelly, who was playing with the injury, faces at least three weeks on the sidelines but Kingsley admits the timeline is not definite.
"It's just got to a point where it's not allowing him to perform to where he wants to perform," Kingsley said.
"We'd rather intervene right now and fix it than have it linger.
"I'm not sure exactly how many (weeks), but we'll bring him back when he's ready."
