That's the thing . VFL Park was great but never had a train line and so in the end it didn't work.
I generally stay in Surry Hills , so it is easy to get to .
-
AFLW 2024 - Round 10 - Chat, game threads, injury lists, team lineups and more.
No Oppo Supporters 2024 AFL General Discussion
- Thread starter Ticky009
- Start date
- Tagged users None
I generally stay in Surry Hills , so it is easy to get to .
Wheresbuddy
Club Legend
- Sep 14, 2020
- 2,720
- 5,767
- AFL Club
- Sydney
GWS giants are represented by players who live in the "East Sydney Swans" stomping ground. I doubt they feel any connection with their local area and fans.
Will never work
I can see GWS ending up like the Melb storm, a lot of casual fans but small number of rusted on diehard fans. I don't think they'll ever be a massively supported club, especially in NRL heartland. They're important for TV rights.
What's your measure of it 'working' being as big as Sydney or if they get to North Melbourne supporter levels?
If we didn't have them in the league then we'd have zero representation of AFL in western sydney.
It's not needed there , North has no one that goes
I see GWS as a tool to grow the pool of people interested in AFL, whether it be at auskick levels with kids or families attending a match or rusted on supporters following the team regularly. I'm happy to get more people interested in AFL through GWS being in Western Sydney.
Wheresbuddy
Club Legend
- Sep 14, 2020
- 2,720
- 5,767
- AFL Club
- Sydney
Bulk of Penrith and Parra players live in the local area, with many having deep connections with Western Sydney. For GWS to succeed, they need to start discovering some western sydney talent. It's been 13 years and they have only found one (off the top of my head) in Shipley (Campbelltown) who ultimately did not make it. Briggs and and Peatling are from pennant hills but that's not really from the heart of western Sydney.
Massive population in western sydney, afl would be silly not having GWS in that area as representation of the game. Western Sydney has more people than South Australia & Western Australia. The idea is to grow the game, not just maintain whatever it has.
Yea, I think that's something AFL need to look at with GWS but they can't tell people where to live. Penrith & Parra also have a few polynesian players & they always tend to live nearby or with their families. It's the demographics too, they need to engage with those demographics from an early age. Sounds like Auskick is helping then as they get older get them connected with GWS or Sydney or any afl team.
TBH AFL wasn't considered a high school sport until maybe early 2010s in western sydney. They're starting from a low base, it'll take longer than 13 years. I mean the swans have been established for a long time in Sydney & even our academy isn't producing big numbers of AFL players.
I think the population, potential growth & threat of NRL requires a team in Western Sydney.
Unpopular opinion neither the SCG or Homebush are easy to get to at times.
SCG isn’t close to a public transport hub. Parking is average.
Homebush isn’t close to anything.
Wheresbuddy
Club Legend
- Sep 14, 2020
- 2,720
- 5,767
- AFL Club
- Sydney
Population base needs to match interest. GWS has had 13 years in the competition yet still can't fill a 23500 capacity for a home elimination final. If it came down purely to population = growth, let's try China or India.
Personally I think if you left it up to us to grow the game solely in Sydney, we would do a better job in "greater Western sydney" than the Giants.
AFL can only grow in Australia, it has no international growth unlike NRL. It has to make attempts to tap into the NSW & QLD markets for that growth. NRL has been run very poorly compared to AFL, it's changing & the AFL probably recognise that threat. NRL will also have a team in Perth I think by 2028, they aren't going to be sitting around anymore. They've got a team in QLD (Dolphins) & have plans for PNG.
You can't build interest if you have no representation, you need something for that area to be interested in. They had 18k, that still stands for something & that's 18k more than no afl team in Western Sydney. NRL finals match on Friday night between Cronulla Sharks v NQ Cowboys is likely to get less than 18k. Comparison with China or India makes sense if either country had an afl side. Port tried (sort of lol).
Swans had a chance before the giants, did they grow it? Swans only have soo many resources.
Wheresbuddy
Club Legend
- Sep 14, 2020
- 2,720
- 5,767
- AFL Club
- Sydney
They're all valid points. One thing I'm sure we can agree on is that there still needs to be some significant work done by the Giants in engaging with the local community, increasing junior participation and getting bums on seats. All this will also help them win those close finals by creating a large and passionate fan base that will be their "19th man".
The light rail has been a massive help but parking is iffy & so is traffic. Issue with Homebush is there's nothing to do, they don't really have an entertainment area like moore park nor pubs etc. nearby
Yep agreed. I think 18k can be somewhat a starting point or something build upon, so next finals will be a sellout & get better each year. Sydney Swans weren't built in a day, it took time. GWS will take time too, need to temper expectations.
LOVE THE CAPITALS TBH the games is called Aussie Rules , AFL is a competition !
Jewelsbon
Norm Smith Medallist
- Aug 30, 2016
- 5,790
- 17,689
- AFL Club
- Sydney
I'm a 20 year member and up until we moved up the coast, I also had two GWS members, which I would still have if we hadn't have moved away and I don't consider myself a flaky Swan
That says they have 36 k members they haven't they have people like that and people getting Kayo and people from finals likely clubs buying memberships to get finals tickets
Kennedy Parker
🎨𝖆𝖗𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙🎨
- Moderator
- #3,998
Sydney Swans average crowd increase since GWS came in is 14k
GWS average crowds are 13k now and 10k when they started
They have been in for 14 years , so what was our crowd in 96
Back in 2008 Swans played a home final against North in front of 19k. We had around 27k members at the time.
GWS 18k less its Kayo member's etc. is probably a similar ratio.
GWS 18k less its Kayo member's etc. is probably a similar ratio.
