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Here's something we can hopefully all participate in - a march to the SCG!

GIANTS PRE-MATCH FUNCTION

Before we take on the Swans, join us for the GIANTS’ official pre-match function at Watson’s Entertainment Quarter from 12pm on Saturday.

Date: Saturday, September 7
Location: Watson’s Entertainment Quarter, 1 Bent St, Moore Park NSW 2021
Arrive from: 12pm
March to the SCG: 2pm (approx.)

Let's make it the biggest march in Giants history, and get right up those red-and-white noses!

:grinv1:
 
Giant Strides said:
OK, can we move on from the SCG argument please RedV3x & dlanod.

I don't mind someone coming in and giving a suggestion, nor that a home board member disagrees and debates. But you have now spiralled into a very ticky-tacky, wordsmithing argument that ... frankly, is mind-numbing.
Click to expand...
With all due respect I think the stadium size as a showcase to AFL vs home ground advantage is a valid debate.
It not only applies to GWS.

I don't know what the other moderator is on about but the real "cost" to GWS is exposure.
Any big game at Homebush promotes the stadium, the Giants and the synergy between the two.
There is a long benefit to that.
The short term benefit is more money from a bigger stadium.
It is arguable which stadium will provide the best result to "theatre-goers"
The SCG will provide more "theatre-goers" but Homebush might provide the best fan conversion.

In any case the debate should be about enlarging Homebush..
The question should be why so much money is going to NRL from governments and not AFL.
 
Land of the Giants said:
Here's something we can hopefully all participate in - a march to the SCG!

GIANTS PRE-MATCH FUNCTION

Before we take on the Swans, join us for the GIANTS’ official pre-match function at Watson’s Entertainment Quarter from 12pm on Saturday.

Date: Saturday, September 7
Location: Watson’s Entertainment Quarter, 1 Bent St, Moore Park NSW 2021
Arrive from: 12pm
March to the SCG: 2pm (approx.)

Let's make it the biggest march in Giants history, and get right up those red-and-white noses!

:grinv1:
Click to expand...
I've got a booking nearby so won't be attending the function but will join in for the march. :D
 

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‘Sydney loves winners’: The orange wave colliding with Bloods tradition

Bec Skilton and Melissa Doyle are the top ticket holders of the Sydney AFL clubs set for battle on Saturday. Their paths to super fandom couldn’t be less alike.
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‘Sydney loves winners’: The orange wave colliding with Bloods tradition​


Bec Skilton, the granddaughter of Swans legend Bob Skilton, loved Aussie Rules from birth. Melissa Doyle, the GWS Giants’ number one ticket-holder, didn’t touch a Sherrin until her mid-30s.

How they came to love AFL couldn’t be any different, but both are desperate for their respective teams to win the qualifying final at the SCG on Saturday afternoon.

It no longer matters if you’re a Swans diehard from the south Melbourne days or a Giants fan riding the infectious orange wave. The passion is what counts.

Take Doyle. Like many Sydney children of the 1980s, rugby league was the only sport she knew. She was dragged to Brookvale Oval each week by her father to see Manly play and only picked up Aussie Rules decades later when her son started Auskick.

Doyle became the Giants’ number one ticket-holder ahead of their inaugural 2012 season when they were no more than a bunch of teenagers representing an area many thought would never warm to AFL.

Some of those young faces will be the ones leading the Giants onto the SCG on Saturday afternoon.

“To watch them blossom as players, to watch the trajectory of their professional sporting career, has been such an exciting thing to see,” Doyle says. “To see them married now and holding babies, it’s really lovely.”

Many of Skilton’s earliest childhood memories were steeped in red and white, with grandfather “Bobby” in arm’s reach.

“Our life revolves around footy,” Skilton said. “When I was in university I lived around the corner from him, and if we weren’t there, I used to go around to his place and watch it together.”

It’s a “little bit harder” nowadays for the Skiltons to watch the Swans, with Bob, 85, in aged care.

Skilton, who lives in Melbourne, is at the SCG whenever she can be. She said Sydney’s round-22 win against Collingwood, which snapped a disastrous run of form, was a turning point.

“I’m not a particularly loud supporter at the game, and the people I was sitting with, I don’t think I’ve ever seen them as animated as what we were for that game.”

Skilton, who was named the Swans’ number one ticket-holder for their 150th season, said it’s the Giants’ unpredictability that worries her ahead of Saturday.

“I’m always a little bit nervous playing GWS, they’re always pretty incredible games. You never know what you’re going to get playing them.”

When Doyle is asked her dream scenario for the game, she says a last-minute Giants goal to sink Swans’ hearts would do the trick.

“You want a cracking game, you want it to go down to the wire … you want people to come out and have a good time and love it,” Doyle says.

“Sydney loves winners.”
 
How a role Callan Ward ‘never thought’ he’d play has sparked a new one-year contract

Lachlan McKirdy

06 September 2024

News Sport Network

Callan Ward knows finals like the back of his hand.

He played his first back in 2009 at the Western Bulldogs and has one piece of advice for his young Giants teammates when they ask him what to expect.

“I’d probably tell them that if you’re off by one or two per cent, you can lose games,” Ward said.

“Or you personally won’t play a good game, which could in turn lose games for your team.

“The intensity in the game goes up, but it’s the intensity around the club, the intensity around training and the standards. So just make sure you’re on. Make sure your prep is really good.”

While he might look at the players around him thinking just how much has changed since he made his AFL debut in 2008, it’s Ward in fact who looks like he has been drinking from the Fountain of Youth this season.

Rejuvenated is the best way to describe the 34-year-old.

He made no secret of the fact earlier this year that Adam Kingsley’s appointment provided him with a new lease of life on the footy field. But the tactical decision to move him to the wing, a position that has regularly become home to the best young runners in the competition, has been a masterstroke.

So much so that Ward has put pen to paper to commit to an 18th season of senior footy in 2025, a choice the Giants were always happy to leave in his court.

“(My future) is one of those things I think about all the time coming to this time of year and at my age,” Ward said.

“But I’ve really enjoyed the wing role.

“The balance we’ve got in our midfield means I’m required on the wing which I like. I value the role and I feel the club really values that as well.

“It’s a different role than I’ve ever played, I’m usually the inside mid that doesn’t run that much.

“Now I’m running back to support the backs and trying to get forward to kick goals.

“I never thought I’d be a permanent winger, I thought maybe 20 or 30 per cent of a game and then the rest as a half-forward or midfielder. But I’m learning all the time, which at my age people probably think there’s not that much to learn, but there always is.

“But, I’m probably at the stage of my career where I’m happy to play any role for the team.”

As he prepares for the fifth qualifying final of his career, the Swans are a familiar opponent for Ward. This will be the 31st time he has played Sydney, 11 more times than any other team.

Unfortunately for Ward, September has traditionally been a time of heartache. Devastating losses have often been combined with cruel injuries, while last year’s one-point loss to Collingwood brought up an unwanted record.

“From that prelim loss last year, I’ve now lost five prelims in my career which isn’t a great stat,” Ward said.

“But the motivation definitely becomes more deeper into the season.

“I don’t think we’ll talk too much about last year’s final series. But what we’ve done this season has been built off what we did in that prelim. We’re building on and trying to improve on last season, including that final.

“We feel like we’ve improved our system and our brand, and the game plan is more consistent. But we’re still trying to hit that consistency and play four good quarters.

“There’s no real need to find motivation in finals. But playing against Sydney, especially this year, they’re the best in the competition. So, I guess the motivation probably lifts a little bit because it’s them.”

For Ward, the motivation has always been team glory.

Being a part of an inaugural GWS premiership is the pinnacle he has always dreamt of achieving.

Earlier in the season, he was adamant that winning a premiership would see him hang the boots up for good. But it’s a sign of how great his body is feeling that the 313-gamer knows he has more to give.

With one more season guaranteed in the orange and charcoal, Ward still has some time to complete his footy bucket list. However, he knows the Giants are as well placed in 2024 as they’ve ever been.

“I’m just enjoying my footy and trying to get the most out of my career now,” Ward said.

“We’ve built a club, and a game plan and culture around the club, where people love coming here. They love playing for the Giants.

“Players enjoy the grind, train really hard and work even harder. And I think the closeness of this group, including the coaches and whole football staff, is as close as it’s ever been.”
 

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Why Sydney’s AFL teams don’t exist for Melburnians

Trouble looms for the Melbourne-centric AFL on Saturday afternoon. They won’t be able to avoid Sydney for a few hours.
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Opinion​

Why Sydney’s AFL teams don’t exist for Melburnians​


Here in Sydney, centre of the AFL universe, the Sydney Swans (minor premiers) are playing the Greater Western Sydney Giants (fourth) in the qualifying final at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Saturday. In Sydney. Just near Sydney Harbour.

It will be a hard game for either Sydney team to win. It will be even harder for the TV commentators to pretend Sydney doesn’t exist.

Here’s how it usually goes for fans of the Sydney teams, who have been at or near the top of the AFL all year. They are playing a Melbourne team. Let’s call it, for argument’s sake, “Collingwood”, but it could just as easily be Carlton, Essendon, Hawthorn or even North Melbourne.

The Sydney team is smashing them. The commentators spend all their time wondering what “Collingwood” can do to turn it around, how many “Collingwood” players need to lift, what tweaks the “Collingwood” tactics need, whether the “Collingwood” coach will be on the boundary line or in his box.

Every half-hour, they remember to mention a Sydney or GWS player, but only one they can identify, such as Isaac Heeney or Toby Greene or Nick Blakey, who goes by “The Lizard”, because it would be too hard to remember his name. When Tom Papley kicks a goal, there will be a stock phrase about how he “fires up his teammates”. Then it’s back to more analysis of “Collingwood”.

If “Collingwood” fight back, the commentators become extremely excited. They don’t talk about how the Sydney team has fallen away or what it needs to do better. They begin to wet their pants about how superb “Collingwood” are, what an incredible fightback they have made and how all other teams are scared of them.

When the final siren sounds, whatever the result, we get a thorough post-mortem on why “Collingwood” were so bad or so good.

It gets a bit wearying, not to exist. And Sydney’s existence is going to be a mountain, this weekend, for Melbourne and its voices to overcome. Sydney is an AFL thing and, this year, a thing that can’t be airbrushed away.

The more that Sydney exists, the more Melbourne suffers an existential threat. Saturday’s match, which is at the Sydney Cricket Ground, in Sydney, may be a preview of the grand final. What will Melbourne do then? When they should be grateful that the match is being played in Melbourne at all, instead they’ll be whingeing about Swans supporters (too well-dressed to be real AFL fans) and GWS supporters (not enough of them).

There will be a lot of talk about what went wrong for “Collingwood”, what their players have been up to in Bali, and who they need to recruit in the off-season.

Sydney versus Sydney is a Melbourne Armageddon. But it’s not only Sydney. The other top-four teams are Port Adelaide and Geelong (which is not a suburb of Melbourne). The highest-placed of the bottom four are the Brisbane Lions. Melbourne is represented in the finals, modestly, by the Western Bulldogs, Hawthorn and Carlton, at least one of whom will be gone by Saturday night. By Sunday, there might only be one Melbourne team left. Geelong, who overwhelmed Port Adelaide on Thursday night, will be fully incorporated into Bleak City.

Hubris comes before a fall, but let’s enjoy the hubris. We don’t hate Melbourne, we love it. It’s left Sydney in the dust in countless ways, but it’s as irresistible to tease as a big AFL sibling suffering a bad bout of denial. The Swans have been brilliant to watch all year. Like a back-marker in the Stawell Gift, they’ve mostly given their opponents the first quarter before running home over the top of them.

The Giants have been similarly good to watch if anyone was watching them. They’ve built on last season, when only a bad umpiring call prevented them from stopping “Collingwood” making the grand final. (“Collingwood”, who got to play all their finals at home, received an even worse umpiring call to edge Brisbane on the big day.)

One of the remarkable features of both Sydney teams is that they have defied the wisdom that you can’t change a tyre on a moving vehicle. The Swans have rebuilt their list while continuing to excel, integrating a new generation of stars – Heeney, Papley, Chad Warner, Errol Gulden, James Rowbottom et al – while their older players were on the fade. Their renewal advanced so rapidly that they made the 2022 grand final while still green, and were duly walloped that day by Geelong. They seem to be ready now.

What the Giants have achieved is equally admirable. Five years ago, their rich crop was forecast to dominate the AFL for a decade. Instead, that group made one grand final, in 2019, which they lost by 89 points to Richmond. The Giants managed to disburse many of their stars and their coach, yet still make the finals in three of the next five seasons.

Not fair, says Melbourne. It’s true that the AFL has assisted the Sydney teams in growing and drawing from their own academies, and allowed some not-inconsiderable salary cap concessions over time. If I were a “Collingwood” fan, I’m sure I would be bleating away and trying to pretend Sydney didn’t exist.

But in an era bent on expansion, there are structural lessons, as there are in the NRL with the Melbourne Storm, who have just won their whatever-th minor premiership in years they haven’t cheated the salary cap.

These clubs are darlings of their leagues’ administrations because, starting on greenfield sites, they have created 21st-century organisations. Expansion works when smart new people can create smart new clubs with the latest facilities and thinking. History has a great appeal for fans – it’s food for the soul and the engine of loyalty – but history can also bring the burden of factions, feuds, crippling grudges, horrendous toilets and other bad habits. In both the AFL and the NRL, many clubs are burdened by the very traditions they celebrate.

And the majority of 20-to-25-year-old footballers don’t give a flying fart about history. They give a nod to the old boys but would really rather they get out of the way. It’s another of the remarkable features of the Swans that they have so smoothly woven their South Melbourne and 40-year Sydney histories into a truly 21st-century club.

These success stories provide a template for future expansion areas from Hobart to Perth to Port Moresby. It can be easier to start from scratch, or near-scratch. But a balance can always be struck. Compare, in the NRL, Penrith and Parramatta.

But enough sensible thinking. Back to gloating. From Bondi to Blacktown, this is Sydney’s Saturday. Even Peter V’landys will have to decide which he hates more, Victoria or the AFL. The Swans and Giants hate each other, and that’s something to be smug about too.
Melbourne might have become the most populous city in Australia, but all its crusty old TV guys will have to look north if they want to find the capital of their favourite game. It’s going to be hard for them to watch two Sydney teams and still make it all about Collingwood.
 

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Can the Swans finally smash the Giants’ September dominance?

The Swans have played GWS three times in finals and lost every time – are there lessons from history for Saturday’s clash?
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Can the Swans finally smash the Giants’ September dominance?​


In a sport that regularly basks in well-worn cliches, none is more apt than that finals present a different beast to the regular AFL season.

On Thursday morning, Port Adelaide were swaggering after a six-game winning streak that put them in the same conversation as the Swans as a strong premiership contender. By that night they had folded at home by 84 points to Geelong, reminding Sydney that the pressure of finals can do strange things to even the most accomplished teams.

The Swans have played the Giants three times in finals and lost all three, but what can they tell us about Saturday’s game?

2016: The Giants stand up to big brother when it counts

Swans 7.13 (55) Giants 12.19 (91)
There is an element of déjà vu with this qualifying final from 2016. The Swans had won the minor premiership, while the Giants arrived as underdogs. In 10 Sydney derbies before this final, the Giants had only won two. The Giants were also into their first-ever finals series having finished fourth, but played fearless football in front of 60,222 fans at ANZ Stadium, which deprived the Swans of the home comforts of the SCG.

The game was a turning point in the history of the Giants, as young players that went on to form a core part of their later success outplayed the Swans, including Stephen Coniglio and Lachie Whitfield.

Future captain Toby Greene got two goals and full forward Jeremy Cameron got four, outshining Swans champion Lance Franklin, who three years earlier had turned down the opportunity to help build the Giants.

The Giants had swarmed the Swans with relentless pressure and tackles, perhaps best typified by former Sydney player Shane Mumford, who laid down a physical marker that helped to inspire his young team. The previously ignored little brothers had made their mark and the rivalry was set.

2018 Giants clinically eliminate Sydney at the SCG

Sydney 4.6 (30) Giants 10.19 (79)

Two years later it was a different story for both clubs, with the Swans finishing sixth and the Giants in seventh in the regular season, forcing them into an elimination final at the SCG with no hope of second chances.

Giants coach Leon Cameron, now the general manager of football at the Swans, took an educated gamble, bringing back Greene from an extended injury lay-off and the star forward repaid him spectacularly, collecting 27 disposals and kicking three majors, showing that September is where he does his very best work.

The Giants condemned the Swans to their lowest score at the SCG, as Franklin struggled with a groin injury and was marshalled out of the game by GWS defender Phil Davis.
The decisive defeat was captured perfectly by Swans coach John Longmire: “Nothing went right for us and everything went wrong.”

2021 Giants triumph in one-point thriller in Tassie
Swans 11.8 (73) Giants 10.13 (74)

Two years later, the Swans and Giants finished in identical positions of sixth and seventh, but COVID-19 had changed everything off the field, with both clubs forced to play their elimination final in Launceston.

The Sydney rivals played out the game of the season as the Giants dominated until early in the third quarter with a lead of 29 points, before the Swans staged an impressive comeback.

Swans forward Isaac Heeney kicked two of his four goals in a frantic last quarter with his side having ample opportunities to kill-off the game, but ultimately the Giants hung on, inspired once again by an impressive Greene, who spearheaded his side with three goals.

2024 a chance to write a new story for the Swans?

When asked on Thursday about taking any inspiration from the Giants’ finals record against the Swans, GWS coach Adam Kingsley preferred to focus on this season.

“We haven’t really spoken about the [finals] history,” Kingsley said. “Recent history would suggest the Swans are a far better team than us, and they’ve beaten us twice this year.”

The Swans won in round eight by 29 points at the SCG and in round 15 in Western Sydney by 27 points.
In both games, the Swans’ talented midfield trio of Chad Warner, Heeney and notably Errol Gulden helped their side to dominate clearances and possession, leaving the Giants’ normal pressure game ineffective.

After the Swans’ victory in round 15, they suffered a brief slump, only winning a single game against North Melbourne in their last six, before winning their last three games and reminding the competition of their class.

The Giants have also been impressive, going on a seven-game winning streak before losing their final game of the regular season against the Bulldogs.

The clash of the midfielders will be crucial to shaping the outcome of this game with the Giants’ impressive trio of Josh Kelly, Coniglio and Tom Green motivated to shut down the Swans All-Australian trio of Warner, Heeney and Gulden.

The Giants’ rebounding halfback Whitfield’s elite ball-use was curbed by the constant attention of the Swans’ James Jordon this year. If Whitfield can shake the tag, it opens more opportunities for the Giants’ attack to open up and to unleash the forward threat of Coleman medallist Jesse Hogan and Greene.

Equally, the full-strength Swans have small forward Tom Papley, a proven performer, back from injury and know the stage is perfectly set at the SCG for them to rewrite their unwanted September record against the Giants.
 

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From Surry Hills to Seven Hills, the pubs putting on a show for the Sydney derby

As the Sydney Swans and the GWS Giants meet on Saturday, two pubs and their supporters prepare for the game of a lifetime.
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From Surry Hills to Seven Hills, the pubs putting on a show for the Sydney derby​

Two pubs, both alike in dignity, in fair Sydney where we lay our scene.

Sydney was once unified under a single AFL banner, but in 2012 the Giants invaded from the west and carved the city in two. Swans territory retreated to the glittering coastline and a bitter rivalry was sparked that will burn bright when the two sides meet in a qualifying final at the SCG on Saturday.
At the Hudson Hotel in Seven Hills, Ben Waters — general manager and diehard Greater Western Sydney supporter — moulded his venue into a Giants stronghold after growing tired of the team not having a home in the west.
“You’d either be watching it at home or you’d have to go to find a Swans venue to go watch it at because there wouldn’t be anywhere else,” said Waters.

Now the transformation of the pub has created a territory where any Swans fan that might want to sit down for a pint will need to make sure “they’re undercover”.

The rift between the teams is so strong, says Waters’, that even his own Swans supporting mother would “never be caught dead in a GWS pub”.

Another GWS superfan, Michelle Burns, 49, has been to the Hudson Hotel to watch the Giants play, and said the energy in the room was unparalleled. “Just the euphoria when you’re with a group of other people who are supporting and you’re winning ... suddenly, you’re hugging and high-fiving a complete stranger.”

Across town at the Dolphin Hotel in Surry Hills, game days bring swarms of Swans fans who flock to the pub to purchase discounted drinks if wearing red and white. The only person you won’t see backing the Bloods is senior duty manager Sammy Sirianni.

“I do not wear other people’s jerseys. I’m a Carlton man through and through,” said Sirianni, who played for the Preston Bullants before his move to Sydney.

“Years ago one of the bosses bought us all a [Swans] scarf each, and I said ‘If you give me that scarf I’m going to hang you with it.’”

The Dolphin, an upscale pub that serves wood-fired pizzas and a speciality game day cocktail, the Swan Song Spritz, is synonymous with Surry Hills. It’s also become a favourite haunt of the opposing team.

“I think I get more GWS players than Swans players to be honest,” said Sirianni, “they’re always in and out. I’ve got the captain Toby Greene in, he’s a regular. Steve Coniglio, he’s a regular, Lachie Keeffe. They have their meetings here sometimes, the board meetings.”

Sirianni says the pub is preparing for business to go “through the roof” when the Swans meet the Giants, and while crowds will be in high spirits, revellers tend to behave themselves: “You’ll get one or two that’s a character, but that’s footy!”

“It’s a derby. Let’s face it, there’s no love lost between them. They don’t like each other, which is great because that’s what a derby should be.”
 
Interesting stat from the above - this is the fourth time we've played the Swans in a final and the first time we'll play at a previously used venue.

I wonder how many finals matchups had different venues for their first three games.
 

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Squeaky-clean Swans and the Giants of self-promotion

For decades, Sydney’s brand has been akin to a manicured lined lawn with immaculately pruned shrubs. For those inclined towards the loose-unit vibes at GWS, the compulsion is to snip off a few branches.
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Squeaky-clean Swans and the Giants of self-promotion​

For decades, Sydney’s brand has been akin to a manicured lawn lined with immaculately pruned shrubs. For those inclined towards the loose-unit vibes at GWS, the compulsion is to snip off a few branches.

By Emma Kemp and Vince Rugari
September 7, 2024

You could practically hear the collective gasp emanate from Swans headquarters in August when John Longmire had a crack at Craig McRae.

Any journalist who has ever attended one of ‘Horse’s’ weekly media stand-ups or post-match press conferences in his 13-odd years at the helm will know this head coach is an expert in playing a straight bat to almost every question that comes his way. So when he finally bit at the perceived irony of a Collingwood coach complaining about home-ground advantage, it was very unHorse-like indeed.

Even in the midst of his “extraordinary admission” comments, the affable demeanour remained. And by the time the next interview rolled around, he had completely reverted to type. Saying a lot without saying much at all. Always cheerful. Always complimentary of the opposition. Never stirring the pot.

Now it is the first week of finals and, though you can feel it in the air and see it in the ticket sales (well and truly sold out), you wouldn’t know it from Sydney’s playing contingent. Just like their coach, who is exceptional at both his job and his inexplicit brand of messaging, several squad members have cycled through a series of nice and polite and perfectly pleasant interviews - all without saying a negative word about Greater Western Sydney.

Even Isaac Heeney, the subject of some pretty significant Giants mimicry back in July (read: the Toby Greene video feud), would not be drawn into uttering anything resembling a barb before his club’s Sydney derby qualifying final at the SCG on Saturday afternoon. Not even now the Swans are minor premiers and Sam Taylor’s “chirpy” and “smug” comments before April’s first regular-season derby may not have aged so well. “We let them be them, and we’ll focus on what we can do to impact the game,” Heeney said on Monday. “Really, the media is what they want to do to try and get engagement, and we just don’t buy into that.”

He was referring to the famous – perhaps infamous – social media presence: a meme machine across X, Instagram and TikTok reflecting efforts by the AFL’s youngest club to generate more buzz in a tough geographical landscape. It conjures social media posts on the Giants’ official accounts that roast their own players for crooked parking and tribunal appearances. They are the masterful work of Jacob Gaynor, the club’s content king who is developing such a name for himself he has been profiled by GQ.

But wait, weren’t we trying to talk to the Swans about the Swans? How has Heeney mastered such skills in deflection? Does Longmire and Sydney’s own media team keep the players on the straight and narrow in terms of what they say in public? “Yeah, they do to a certain degree,” Heeney said as he stood next to the club’s amused head of marketing and communications. “But at the same time I think the boys are pretty switched on and understand the power of words, and where to go and where not to go.”

The keep-it-clean attitude is a fascinating subplot to what should, based on events this year, be one of the more heated finals fixtures regardless of how the rest of September plays out. And yet the Swans appear intent on ensuring they are not nearly as “good on the tongue” as Heeney says Greene and Gaynor are.

For decades – possibly dating as far back as the flamboyant days of the late Dr Geoffrey Edelsten – Sydney’s brand has been akin to a manicured lawn lined with immaculately pruned shrubs. For those more inclined towards the loose-unit vibes at GWS, the compulsion is to snip off a few branches, maybe even have your dog defecate in the yard, just to give it some of the flaws that humans so love in their sports stars. Just to turn the vanilla into literally any other flavour.

But perhaps this is overlooking some pretty clear evidence that rusted-on Swans fans seem to like it just fine this way. It is, after all, born from The Bloods culture: the defining characteristic of the modern Sydney Swans based on player-led communication that flew in the face of the old-school concept of top-down demands. A player-driven initiative cemented into its DNA by the 2005 premiership and Paul Roos’ unofficial no-dickheads policy.

According to Swans premiership player Luke Ablett, the key ingredient at a football club is “not just the statistical measurements, but the character traits that you aspire to”. “That might be training standards, recovery standards or what you go and do on a Saturday night,” Ablett wrote in 2014. “You establish those values and desired characteristics and decide how you want [to] see yourself as a group.”

But Ablett also acknowledged the power of on-field success in reinforcing those values. Which might mean that boring off the field does not matter one iota if you are exciting on it. And the Swans are, irrefutably, exciting on it. They have missed the finals only three times in more than 20 years, to the point a September campaign is a mere formality for most supporters.

“We’ve had a lot of consistency with the club, so we’ve been able to maintain a consistent culture,” says Swans chairman Andrew Pridham. “It’s football first, so our focus is on winning football games, and I think we never lose sight of that. We try not to get distracted by other things, which sometimes clubs do. And culturally we do try and set standards. We’re not perfect, we just try and get better every day, and when things don’t go right to focus on why and try and fix them.”

Roos and then Longmire have somehow overseen a constantly evolving roster while also avoiding the boom-and-bust periods endured by many a rival. Josh Kennedy, a former Swans captain and 2012 premiership player, believes this consistency is seared into the club’s identity partly through a desire to be recognised by traditional AFL heartlands southwest of the Barassi Line - an imaginary divide between NSW and Victoria that deliniates between Australian Rules and rugby league domination. “Being there before the Giants got there, and away from the limelight, the club and players haven’t traditionally got as much recognition as some of the bigger Melbourne clubs,” Kennedy says. “So to prove a point, you’ve just got to continue to win and continue to be up there. Play well and let that do the talking.”

Regardless, Pridham insists the squeaky-clean persona is not a “deliberate strategy” but an organic culture. “We’re not trying to pick fights with anyone or score points,” he says. “We respect the game, we respect the other clubs and people involved in it, and we just want to be the best versions of us that we can be – as boring as it might sound. There’s a lot of the superstars who do their talking on the field rather than off. You’ve seen that recently with [Richmond star] Dustin Martin’s unwillingness to be interviewed. At the end of the day, most fans want to love the players and, the better the player, the more they tend to love and want to be able to respect them.”

This last part is in response to a question about Lance Franklin, the defining figure of footy in NSW despite being famously media-shy and arguably not fully known by his fans right up to his retirement last year. Former Swans ruckman Callum Sinclair puts this partly down to individual personalities, and cites Geelong’s Patrick Dangerfield as a natural “AFL media performer”, in contrast to the majority of his contemporaries to whom this type of interaction does not come naturally. But he also referenced the media’s responsibility to ask questions which elicit answers outside the rote-learned norm.

“If you went to a press conference and asked, ‘how do you feel about this weekend’s game?’ what answer do you think you’re going to get?” Sinclair says. “Of course the players will sit there and say ‘yeah, excited about playing finals football. It’s what we live for, September action. We respect the other team’.”

Sinclair believes the Giants are adopting the jokers-from-out-west persona to gain traction in “a very challenging market” dominated by rugby league and soccer. “So to have a presence and a defined brand that stands out compared to a lot of other clubs in the league,” he says. “They’ve got that cheeky nature about them, of a playing group that’s quite fun and relaxed … I guess they’re probably just trying to really contribute to the rivalry between both clubs in the code up here, and they tend to poke and prod where they can and get a bit of a reaction.”

Gaynor was employed by the Giants in 2021 to do just that, and his pithy one-liners and super-specific takedowns via the club’s official social media accounts are inspired by the American sporting clubs and designed to attract eyeballs and grow metrics. Between January and April this year, the Giants’ collective social media following grew by more than 10,000 followers and now sits a little north of 300,000. While that’s well shy of Sydney’s almost 500,000 followers, the rapid upward trajectory of a less-established club indicates the strategy is clearly working.

Every one of Gaynor’s posts is a tiny piece of micro-branding that contributes to the outside world’s view of the club (as quite possibly the Bart Simpson of the AFL), and he does his work with enthusiastic support from chief executive David Matthews, president Tony Shepherd and head coach Adam Kingsley.

“Last year, especially towards the end of the finals run and things, he [Kingsley] would come up to me and ask what this week’s meme was,” Gaynor says. “He was pretty eager, and found it quite funny. I think his kids keep him updated, and he’s got a secret little Instagram account that I don’t think anyone knows he has.”

But the trolling has not always been appreciated across the other side of town. Greene’s video in July, which set out to parody the heavily ridiculed, very earnest video recorded by Heeney after a suspension ruled him out of Brownlow Medal contention got under the skin of Swans chief executive Tom Harley enough to call it “pretty low-brow”.

Gaynor felt as if he was being told off by the school principal. “My dad’s a principal, so it felt very similar – the whole ‘we’re not mad, just very disappointed’ approach,” he says. “But I actually grew up a mad Swans fan, so to have Tom Harley and John Longmire and Paul Roos and the likes come out and publicly say they don’t love what you’re doing, that’s pretty funny.”

Whatever it is, the clearly contrasting identities are working in tandem to grow the game in NSW, where membership numbers across both clubs are constantly climbing. “You wouldn’t want the clubs to be similar,” Gaynor says. “What the Swans do might work for them, but it doesn’t necessarily work for us. And whilst we’re in the same state, we’re in completely different markets and trying to grow the game in different ways.”
 

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Why all-Sydney grand final is what AFL deserves and needs

Eight years ago, the Swans and the Giants nearly met for the AFL’s first all-Sydney season decider. Could this finally be the year?
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Opinion​

Why all-Sydney grand final is what AFL deserves and needs​

September 10, 2024 — 11.44am


September is hailed as the most wonderful time of the year in the AFL, yet in the first week of finals, the majority of the contests were over long before the final siren sounded.

Four games were served up in week one, and it was left to Sydney to provide a single main course worthy of finals status. Geelong brutally took apart Port Adelaide by 84 points, Hawthorn comfortably quelled the Bulldogs by 37 points and Brisbane led Carlton by a remarkable 60-0 late in the second quarter, before moving down the gears to win by a cool 28 points.

At the SCG on Saturday the contrast was stark. A six-point thriller played out between two intense rivals showcased everything good about the game. In 2016, the Giants came within six points of beating the Bulldogs in their preliminary final to join the Swans in the grand final.
Eight years on, an all-Sydney grand final has never been more needed. Here’s why.

Familiarity has bred contempt​

Despite growing up in the same household, siblings often have directly opposite personalities which ultimately leads to division and tension. Sitting at the same dinner table together becomes difficult.

The Giants must do things differently to the Swans. They do not have the benefit of years of history and tirelessly spread the gospel of AFL in a market dominated by generations of rugby league, rugby union and soccer fans.

On the field, the Giants have built up one of the most talented rosters in the league, with foundation players like captain Toby Greene and Stephen Coniglio.

These players remember their first days arriving at the club and having meetings at Rooty Hill RSL about what the AFL’s new boys could one day become. Now they have an elite squad that can compete with anyone, and will be sickened at throwing away the opportunity of beating the Swans in the first week of finals.

The confrontation between Swans forward Tom Papley and Greene at the end of the first quarter was the spark needed to make that match explode. The rivalry is not just for the marketing department of the AFL, it is real and heated, leading to thrilling clashes every time they face off in the finals.

Comic book heroes ready to inspire NSW​

In the third quarter, the Swans were looking for inspiration to keep in the contest, and as usual, Isaac Heeney came and delivered with a spectacular mark on the shoulders of Giants defender Jack Buckley.

Buckley showed remarkable sportsmanship and reflexes to grab Heeney’s arm as he hurtled towards the ground, at risk of breaking his arm – or worse, his neck. Heeney was quick to acknowledge Buckley’s action after the game.

Both men are products of NSW, Heeney the young man from Newcastle who could have played elite soccer, cricket or rugby league but found his calling at the Swans academy.

Buckley grew up in the eastern suburbs of Sydney and was also in the Swans academy, before falling out of love with the game and turning to basketball.

After school, he slowly found his way back to his first love through Sydney club football at UNSW and eventually earned a slot in the Giants squad as a Category B rookie in late 2017. Heeney and Buckley have walked different paths to become valued mainstays in their teams and represent the possibility of inspiring the next generation of NSW locals to follow in their path into the AFL.

Their differences make them more attractive together​

The Giants and Swans have different strengths and weaknesses. The Giants arguably have a better-balanced team overall, with a solid defence marshalled by Buckley and Sam Taylor and a forward line led by Coleman Medallist Jesse Hogan.

The Giants rely on ferocious pressure and tackling to unsettle opponents and it very nearly worked against the Swans, with academy product Tom Green hoovering up possession for most of the game.

The Swans often need to call upon their vaunted combination of Heeney, Errol Gulden and Chad Warner to spark life into their team after a trademark slow start, triggering a thrilling comeback that keeps the stadium on edge throughout the contest. They have also recruited extremely smartly, bringing in veteran ruckman Brodie Grundy to extract the full potential of the midfield.

In boxing, they say you need a good dance partner to form a great rivalry. The Swans and Giants may not love having their dance card stamped together, but when they do, especially in finals, they provide contests that remind us of the brilliance of Australian football. It is impossible to separate them.

The road to the MCG​

There is still a very long and arduous path to the grand final for the AFL’s Sydney contingent. The Giants on Saturday play host to a Brisbane team turbocharged by Dayne Zorko and Hugh McCluggage.

If the Giants get through the Lions, they then have to work out how to beat the evergreen Geelong team, with Patrick Dangerfield reminding us that his class and ability to turn a game is permanent. The Swans will await the victor of a shattered Port Adelaide and a resurgent Hawthorn, before taking them on under the Friday night lights of the SCG in the preliminary final.

There is no easy way to the MCG in the last week of September, but the prospect of the first-ever all-Sydney grand final remains incredibly compelling for fans of both clubs and neutrals.

The product on the field is perfect, the simmering rivalry will move into a blaze and more importantly for the code, there is a golden opportunity to grow the game across NSW like never before.

The Swans and the Giants could have the opportunity of a second date in September in far grander surroundings than before, but it is up to both clubs to make this unlikely dream become a reality.
 
Colonial said:
VFL protecting South
Click to expand...
That one's a bit of a long bow to draw given how many times AFL head office have screwed Sydney over the years.
 
Colonial said:
As an aside the media coverage in Sydney this finals series is a lot better than last year, to be fair that wasnt hard as we had zip on “Sydneys Home of Sport”.
Click to expand...

Yep, 7 news have been amazing too, giants stories 5 out of 7 nights the past few weeks. Their coverage after Saturday's game was like a grand final's news coverage in Melbourne.
 
Love when they get Phil Davis in for these kinds of conversations.
 

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