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‘Not where we want to be’: AFL booming in Swans territory, but it’s a different story out west

The Giants may be flying high in the finals, but the AFL admits that it still has significant work to do on attracting fans and participants in western Sydney.
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‘Not where we want to be’: AFL booming in Swans territory, but it’s a different story out west​

By Vince Rugari and Jonathan Drennan​

September 14, 2024 — 5.40am

It’s been widely lauded as the peak moment in NSW’s Australian rules history: the instant classic between the Swans and the Giants last weekend, when the game’s newest face Isaac Heeney seized the moment in front of a rumbling capacity crowd at the SCG to put them one win away from another grand final.

Australian rules is booming in Swans territory, by which we mean the eastern suburbs, north shore and inner-city areas where their fans tend to come from. And yes, the Giants are flying the flag brilliantly for Sydney, too, having made the finals seven times in their 13 seasons to date. On Saturday night, their campaign goes on the line in a mouthwatering semi-final against the Brisbane Lions at Engie Stadium.

But a quick peek under the hood suggests that the AFL – and the Giants – have a long, long way to go if they are to replicate the efforts of their crosstown rivals and win the hearts and minds of fans in the western suburbs.
In fact, by some measures, it could be argued that the code has actually gone backwards.

Grassroots numbers in decline​

This masthead sought assessments on the health of the game from representatives of several grassroots clubs in western Sydney, some of whom requested anonymity in exchange for frankness, in order to protect relationships.
The consensus was clear: it’s more of a struggle than ever, if not at crisis point. According to one source, there has been an overall decline in participation across western Sydney during the past eight years. Requests for official numbers from the AFL were not forthcoming. Another source speaks of misalignment between the AFL, its state-based subsidiary AFL NSW/ACT, the two clubs, the school system, and everything beneath, which is limiting potential.

Some junior clubs have found sourcing players so difficult that they have closed their doors, like in the case of the Emu Plains/Glenmore Park Lions, who were unable to continue this year due to a lack of numbers. The Blacktown City Suns are also no longer able to field teams in junior football, only offering an Auskick program this season, after previously running boys and girls teams up to under-17s.

Other clubs have banded together and formed ‘alliances’ between clubs in the same region. As an example, the Penrith Giants, Hawkesbury Saints and the Mountain Lions of Faulconbridge will field separate teams up to the age of 13, but beyond that, those clubs will funnel their players into a single team; as the number of players on the field increases in accord with the age groups, they have little choice.

“In the 13-18 age group, all across western Sydney and some other areas of Sydney, a lot of clubs like ours are forming alliances with other clubs,” Penrith Giants coaching coordinator Mick Pearson told the Western Weekender earlier this year. “This is new for us due to the decline in this area.”

Increased travel, due to these shifts in community football, have added to the strain, to the point where some talented players as young as 14 have decided to move interstate in pursuit of better week-in, week-out exposure. Cost of living is another pressure, not to mention the pandemic, which had an impact on participation across all sports, but perhaps Aussie Rules more than any other in the west.
Rob Auld, the AFL’s executive general manager of game development, acknowledges that the community game in western Sydney is lagging and wants to help get it back on track. The AFL is expected to shortly install eight more game development officers in Sydney, with half of them to be dedicated to the west, to help lighten the load on an otherwise largely volunteer-based workforce.

“I would say at a community level, we’re starting to put some activities in place that the market is responding to, but we’re not where we want to be,” Auld said.

“Leading into the period of 2021 we had good momentum, and then we were out of the market for two years [with COVID-19] and then in 2022 it was one of the wettest years on record in Sydney, I think that set us back in the sense of the game was growing, but it wasn’t foundational in its roots, and so those headwinds did create pressure on our club network, no question.

“But what it hasn’t done is it hasn’t deterred or it hasn’t diminished the AFL’s commitment to wanting to be a truly national game, and it certainly hasn’t deterred or diminished our commitment to growing the game in western Sydney.”

Tackling the ‘nuances’ of the west​

Grassroots figures are also dissatisfied with some symbolic decisions by the Giants, which they say raise questions over their commitment to western Sydney. For the current AFLW season, the Giants’ six home games will be split between Canberra’s Manuka Oval (two) and Henson Park in Newtown. None will be played at the purpose-built facility in Blacktown; some years ago, the Giants’ men’s program also shifted from there to Olympic Park.

It remains an uphill battle attracting fans through the turnstiles at Engie Stadium to see the Giants. The club benefited from the AFL’s decision to start the 2024 season with Opening Round, enjoying a rare sell-out against Collingwood. But GWS still have the lowest attendance in the AFL, with an average of 12,275 for home games this season, which is down from their 2017 peak of 13,196 but still competitive with many NRL teams in Sydney.

To help combat these challenges, the AFL has this year invested in a ‘fan hub’ to help spark interest in the code across the western suburbs. Asked how he would describe the initiative to someone from the area, James Ellender, the head of the ‘fan hub’, said: “A bespoke marketing, data and sales team who are working hand in glove with the code to grow the game, and we move from week to month to place to place to put the best version of ourselves forward in the most competitive market in the country.”

As part of their remit, the hub partners with local schools and teachers in western Sydney and buses up 200 kids and their families from Parramatta and Hurstville to Giants and Swans games. There are multilingual cheat sheets for the rules and rehearsals of the club’s song en route to the game.

Auld admits the AFL has had to completely rethink its approach to western Sydney from its previous efforts in growing the game which took more of a blanket approach. There is now an individual strategy from the AFL for 10 specific LGAs in the region.

“I think we may have been not as quick to recognise that we need to be quite nuanced, quite specific and quite bespoke about how we reach into the hearts and minds of our Western Sydney audience,” Auld said.

“I would say we’re taking a much more bespoke, sophisticated approach to the market. We’re doing it in an incredibly integrated way with the clubs, AFL NSW and the fan hub. We’ve got green shoots, but we understand that it is not off a base that we think is at a level that we’re comfortable with, we’ve got a lot of work to do, but we are seeing positive responses to what we are doing.”

Michael Bright, the president of the Parramatta Goannas club who has been heavily involved with the game in western Sydney for the past 11 years, warned “people can’t attach themselves to a brand that isn’t present in the community their brand was born in”. He called for the Giants’ men’s team to make an annual return to Blacktown against a lower-drawing team they’d otherwise face at Engie Stadium.

“We’d love to see them more present in the west,” he said. “We have the most dense population in the country wanting attention, and a packed Engie Stadium, which we all want, only happens if they are present in the western Sydney community.”

Rugby league’s resurgence​

Hunter Fujak is a lecturer in Sports Management at Deakin University in Melbourne and has extensively studied the complex sporting market of western Sydney. He believes the Giants’ tenuous hold needs to be set into the context of the Swans’ long path to success since their relocation in 1982.

“The timeline that we measure success for the Giants really needs to be generational rather than even 10 years, 15 years,” Fujak said.

But the landscape has shifted. When the Giants began in 2012, rugby league was at a low ebb, particularly in the western suburbs.

“It’s actually remarkable how much rugby league has grown in the past three, four years, especially with Penrith doing really well, Parramatta building a new stadium from which they’ve been able to offer a better game-day experience,” he said. “The Bulldogs as well, obviously now coming back – probably the bigger part is that ultimately [the Giants] are still competing in a really contested market with their major competitor being resurgent.”

Giants chief executive Dave Matthews has been with the club since its inception and also recognises the NRL has grown even more sophisticated during that time, but is still confident his club can remain good neighbours with rugby league.
“I just think they’re [the NRL] doing things better than probably what they did previously,” Matthews said. “And what I mean by that is I think they’ve got better stadiums now, I think they’ve got a really strong offering for women and girls, State of Origins are an enormous beast.

“I think there’s absolutely room in a market of Sydney’s size for the NRL clubs to thrive and for Sydney and the Giants to also thrive. I don’t necessarily think we compete head-to-head – in fact, our proposition in Western Sydney in particular is probably: you can barrack for Penrith Panthers, you can barrack for Parramatta Eels, you can barrack for any of the other NRL clubs, but the AFL club for the people of Western Sydney is the Giants.”

Fujak commends the Giants for the way they have sought to differentiate themselves from the Swans, using social media to position their club as a cheeky, irreverent challenger brand to their established rivals, and one that is more likely to win over younger people.

“They basically consciously try to piss off other teams’ fans. They’ve been really clever, and I think that’s really helping them carve out a space,” Fujak said.
“You’re probably never going to get a 50-year-old rusted on Eels fan, right? That person’s probably made their choice. They’re not going to switch. And so what is interesting is the social media stuff obviously is way more predisposed to young audiences, which again speaks to the generational strategy that they have to adopt, rather than a right here, right now, today strategy.”

Showcasing the Showground​

Matthews’ ambitions for the Giants are significant. In time he believes they could become one of the biggest clubs in the AFL. The club’s membership is at its highest yet of 36,629, but the number has not consistently translated into home games; a decent chunk of them are Canberra-based.'

The key, Matthews said, is working closer with the AFL to ensure that each fixture is maximised to its full extent.

“I think Sydney generally is an events market,” Matthews said. “So what we see is when the fixtures are put on at the right time, and our best time slot is probably Saturday twilight – if we’ve got the right time slot, then we see a real spike in members not just wanting to go, but being able to go.

“First and foremost, the membership number for us is an indication of the support and connection that the club has generally, and then the challenge is: how do you translate that into as many people coming to the games as you can?”

While Fujak tends to dismiss membership figures as “propaganda tools” for sporting bodies, he said the Giants deserve credit for growing their wider fanbase, although he doubts if there will be a singular moment – like the Swans’ 1996 grand final appearance – which will be looked back upon as the moment things truly clicked for them in Sydney.

“It’s hard to know whether it would be that one spark that causes it. I don’t think that will be the case anymore,” he said. “The Swans back then were in a different environment than the Giants are now. But certainly, success will lead to iterative growth.”
 

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Yabba dabba doo: Inside Jesse Hogan’s Fred Flintstone goalkicking action

The Giants spearhead’s unconventional goalkicking approach should not inspire confidence. Jerky and twitchy, it’s not easily replicated. But it works.
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Yabba dabba doo: Inside Jesse Hogan’s Fred Flintstone goalkicking action​

By Andrew Wu​

September 14, 2024 — 5.30am

By stepping outside the norm, Jesse Hogan has straightened himself out.

Greater Western Sydney’s newly crowned Coleman medallist’s unconventional goalkicking approach should not inspire confidence. Jerky and twitchy, it’s not easily replicated from shot to shot, less so from game to game. But it works.

Accuracy matters. The Giants won four games by less than a goal this year. He kicked 13.5 in those matches. One more miss and the Giants could have been on the road last week for a cut-throat final.

His 66.1 per cent accuracy rate this year, well above his career rate of 59.7, is the second-best in his 10-year career, behind 2017 when he played only 10 games. Only Fremantle’s Josh Treacy and North Melbourne sharpshooter Nick Larkey have a better conversion rate. It was a big reason he won his first Coleman Medal this year when you consider Jeremy Cameron and Joe Daniher had more shots.

Hogan has never had the smoothest run to goal. Early in his career at Melbourne, he had a tendency to veer to the right. Demons legend David Schwarz labelled his goalkicking a “disgrace” in 2016 after an off day in a practice game. Intermittently, there have been traces of a stutter. It crept into his game late last year but was not as pronounced as the Fred Flintstone-style he now has.

What had generally been a more fluent 17- or 19-step approach in 2023 pushed out to 21 for his clutch goal in the preliminary final as the stutter became more notable. In opening round, it was 25, back to 23 for round one and into the high 20s and low 30s late in the home-and-away season. Last week against the Swans, he kicked on his 35th step.

Hogan’s routine can be broken into four phases. The walk, the skip, the stutter and the finish.

Always leading with his left foot from the top of his mark, Hogan starts with a walk of about five paces before he breaks into a skip. Any momentum generated is then broken in a chaotic staccato where he inches forward like a jackhammer, followed by a contrastingly smooth and conventional final three steps before he puts boot to ball, usually through the big sticks.

West Coast champion Josh Kennedy, a two-time Coleman medallist and also this year’s AFL premiership cup ambassador, was the first to adopt the unorthodox method last decade.

He and teammate Mark Le Cras used to have competitions kicking the ball into a bin before and after training. Kennedy had a stutter for those kicks and because he got so close to the target he figured it was worth using in a game for his goalkicking.

Because it was so different, he could sense the fans laughing at him. Footy parents were not keen either. Kids, don’t try this at home.
“I had Auskick dads telling me, ‘Can you stop doing that? My kids are digging up my grass at home, or falling over trying to do this stuff as Auskick’,” Kennedy said. “You laugh at those things.”

Having a repeatable action is often said to be vital for skills such as fast bowling in cricket, serving in tennis and, in this case, goalkicking.

Hogan’s action is repeatable more by feel than deliberate intent. The latter requires the counting of steps, a difficult task to do from a slow motion replay let alone in real time while trying to perform football’s most important skill.

“I reckon your brain would explode,” Kennedy said.
As counterintuitive as it may seem, the stutter is all about comfort and control, Kennedy said.

“You walk in with a sense of nerves, stick to your routine, focus on routine,” Kennedy said.
“However long your run-up is, generally your emotions go up and down. It’s all about that last little bit when you kick, you’re feeling pretty relaxed. Sometimes that stutter, even if you weren’t out of it, it took away everything else that was there.

“You’re just focusing on the last three steps. In a mindset way, I think it helps as well, being able to feel balanced as you came out of it.
“Sometimes it’s hard to get out of it. Is it three stutters, 10 stutters, 100 stutters? Obviously, it didn’t look right, you cop a bit of flak for it. Every time you went in, you’re thinking, ‘Is this the right thing to do, it’s not conventional, people are laughing at you’.”

Hogan does not think about the stutter, according to Giants forwards coach Jeremy Laidler, who has worked with the spearhead on his routine.

“He’s not worried, from the start of his routine to when he gets his stutter up he’s always thinking he’ll get momentum, and control the final three steps,” Laidler said.

Speak to any goalkicking or forwards coach, they will say it’s the last three steps that count. Hogan’s are technically sound. His hips are straight so that his body is facing where he wants the ball to go. He has momentum, is balanced, and his follow-through is straight, again to his target.

As they do with all their players, the Giants filmed Hogan kicking for goal from front-on and side-on during the pre-season. A theme emerged as they studied his footage.

“The final three steps for him have been consistently the same,” Laidler said.
Laidler was not worried when Hogan changed his technique last summer, wary of not wanting to clutter the mind of his player. His only concern was to make sure Hogan’s stuttering did not take him too close to the man on the mark.

“You don’t want to change it too much because you don’t want them to overthink it,” Laidler said. “You keep the same routine, maybe make a few little tweaks. His belief is he’ll always get the final three steps in check.

“I’ve kept an eye on it to make sure it hasn’t got out of control. He gives himself enough room to control himself to get into his final routine.”

Kennedy abandoned the stutter mid-career, replacing it with a skip, but has no such recommendation for Hogan.

“Everyone is so different in the way their body works, legs work, the way their leg swings, the ball drop, all those things come into play,” Kennedy said.

“You just want to be comfortable, confident, and feeling balanced when you kick that footy.”
 

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MelbourneGWS said:
I guess any publicity is good publicity, but it seems Cooper Hamilton’s Giants social media post has raised the ire of opposition supporters!

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AFL ‘guinea pig’ divides internet with ‘cringe’ act

‘This is actually low key sad.’
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I think best to not talk about other clubs too much, like Toby Greene's thing after Isaac Heeneys suspension. Just build our own club. It is a bit hard though with the demographics of Western Sydney.
 
Callums_Guns said:
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Cornes whacks 'arrogance' as one Giant singled out

'They've pushed the boundaries'
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they've missed quoted and misrepresented Tom Green.

He has clarified himself many, many times. He aspires to be the best player in the comp an be as best he can and doesn't apologise for that goal. He has said many times he is not that player yet but it is what he is working towards.

With Keefe. Hard to argue with. I thought it was a strange selection at the time and was very defensive and it hurt us. He just kicks either of those last quarter goals (one each game) and we win. Simple as that. They were both very easy shots.
Everyone makes mistakes, but in his case, it feels like they were not unexpected.
 
I think with Keefe they may have liked him as the better back up ruck option, coz Briggs shoulders could have given out at any stage. Plus I liked the nullifying role he did on Harris Andrews. He's actually a handy player to have on the list as cover, but I do agree he isn't the future and a Riccardi or Brown may have been that extra scoreboard threat the team needed to help stop the momentum.

With horrendous kicks for goal like Keefe, in finals, I never know why these players don't just pass or handball the ball off, even someone taking a pot shot on the run under pressure is more chance of a goal than he was.
 

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