GWS is the AFL's biggest problem - not North, GC, or Tassie

[Canberra Pear]

But I don't think anyone except for some dumb idiots with an agenda on Bigfooty were making any claim otherwise.

Do you consume much media elsewhere?

Dwayne Russell had a talk back section regarding the semi final crowd, and have the text line's response was "just move them to Canberra". I read it in Facebook comments and tweets all the time. Somebody literally made a subreddit post yesterday titled "Should the Giants move to Canberra?".

It is no way contained to bigfooty. It's a widely held perception. And that perception is hurting the Giants.

 

[Giant YoYo]

Do you consume much media elsewhere?

Dwayne Russell had a talk back section regarding the semi final crowd, and have the text line's response was "just move them to Canberra". I read it in Facebook comments and tweets all the time. Somebody literally made a subreddit post yesterday titled "Should the Giants move to Canberra?".

It is no way contained to bigfooty. It's a widely held perception. And that perception is hurting the Giants.

There are codes that don't want the Giants in Western Sydney/Sydney and certainly don't wish the Giants well.

I'm under no illusion there are many that would like Sydney to go back to being a one club footy city (restricting footys major influence to the eastern part of the city), it's plainly obvious.

There are plenty that see Western Sydney as more or less the last frontier in Sydney to keep footy out from taking hold (compared to the east).

It's a shame a lot of this undermining from elsewhere has now spilled out into the mainstream footy discourse. It's quite frankly playing into the hands of those actors that want the Giants out but a lot of footy fans seem to be none the wiser.

A similar road has been traveled by other footy clubs in the northern states so it's not completely new (circumstances surrounding them and time may be, though. Definitely would've been less online forums /social media back then, though).

 

[sherb]

Yes, but absolutely nobody identifies as being from GWS. It is not a place, it is an area defined for statistical purposes.

Of course no-one identifies as being from GWS - they identify as being from one of the many places contained within the GWS area. For instance, I say I live in Penrith.
I've never seen anyone argue that it is a place - it is, as I said, a clearly defined area. One that is certainly known in Sydney and that the AFL decided that the Giants would be representing.
And for those who didn't (understandably) know what the Greater Western Sydney area comprised, a simple Google search brings up an extensive Wikipedia article as the first result (if you don't trust Wiki there are plenty of references in the article).
My post was to challenge the assertion that "Greater Western Sydney" is a made up place. It's not made up, it exists - in this debate, it's irrelevant why it exists. And it's not a place, it's not presented as such, rather it is a considerable number of places covering a sizeable amount of geography.
So I go back to what I said - Greater Western Sydney is a clearly defined area. And the GWS Giants is a whole lot easier to say than the Blacktown/Penrith/Parramatta/Liverpool/Campbelltown, (etc) Giants...............

 

[Walshawk]

Of course no-one identifies as being from GWS - they identify as being from one of the many places contained within the GWS area. For instance, I say I live in Penrith.
I've never seen anyone argue that it is a place - it is, as I said, a clearly defined area. One that is certainly known in Sydney and that the AFL decided that the Giants would be representing.
And for those who didn't (understandably) know what the Greater Western Sydney area comprised, a simple Google search brings up an extensive Wikipedia article as the first result (if you don't trust Wiki there are plenty of references in the article).
My post was to challenge the assertion that "Greater Western Sydney" is a made up place. It's not made up, it exists - in this debate, it's irrelevant why it exists. And it's not a place, it's not presented as such, rather it is a considerable number of places covering a sizeable amount of geography.
So I go back to what I said - Greater Western Sydney is a clearly defined area. And the GWS Giants is a whole lot easier to say than the Blacktown/Penrith/Parramatta/Liverpool/Campbelltown, (etc) Giants...............

Every time The ‘GWS’ is said in the media, that is a missed opportunity to say the words ‘Western Sydney’.

GWS is a rubbish name for a football club.

 

[MelbourneGWS]

Thank you for highlighting my point. You've fallen for the rhetoric.

The majority of Giants fans and members are in Sydney.

Just 18.6% of Giants members are in Canberra. And only about a third of them are actually Giants fans. Which means of the 36,639 Giants members this year, only about 2,440 would be Canberra Giants fans.

Canberra has bigger crowds because we have more AFL fans, not Giants fans.

Aren’t these numbers based on your “survey” from your site? A site that has a specific agenda lobbying for a full time Canberra AFL team, and where participants opt to give their views, will have a skew towards your views?

Canberra officially does have about 7,000 members according to our club, but don’t think that includes people from Queanbeyan and the surrounding region?

 

[MelbourneGWS]

Btw in relation to the GWS branding, the club has been branding itself as the GIANTS since at least 2018?

 

[Canberra Pear]

Aren’t these numbers based on your “survey” from your site? A site that has a specific agenda lobbying for a full time Canberra AFL team, and where participants opt to give their views, will have a skew towards your views?

They were, but as I've already said, they were mostly obtained by Facebook targeting. It was directed at people with an interest in Australian rules football within a 40km radius of Canberra. I tried to make it as neutral as I could.

Canberra officially does have about 7,000 members according to our club, but don’t think that includes people from Queanbeyan and the surrounding region?

This would be an interesting one. I'd like to see the data on it. The number was 6,830. I wonder if that's with a Canberra postcode, or those who bought the membership with Canberra attendance.

 

[RedV3x]

Every time The ‘GWS’ is said in the media, that is a missed opportunity to say the words ‘Western Sydney’.

And thus exclude the Canberra connection.

GWS is a rubbish name for a football club.

Like Hawthorn.

 

[Giant YoYo]

Btw in relation to the GWS branding, the club has been branding itself as the GIANTS since at least 2018?

Unfortunately, no one outside of Giants fans calls us the Giants.

Across all social/news media it's predominantly GWS.

Everyone I speak to outside of Giants fans refer to us as GWS and we're the only club in the competition that has their name reduced to an acronym (GWS). Don't believe me? Check the AFL website/app ladder.

A word needs to be dropped from GWS to lose the acronym.

Whether that be Greater or Western so that the name is either Western Sydney Giants or Greater Sydney Giants.

I prefer Greater Sydney Giants, it includes our current area and then some, all while losing the acronym.

 

[Aussie in exile]

Go the other way. Relocate the GIANTS to Canberra because at least it's resonated there. It's worked. Then bring in team 20 to offset the Tasmania bye as a second Sydney team playing out of the SCG.

Leave the actual west of Sydney for another 15-20 years down the track for team 21 and 22.

I don't think the AFL will move GWS to Canberra or anywhere else even if it costs them billions to keep them there, but no doubt in my mind that the bean counters would move them when they look at the cost of keeping them there.