Social Your GIANTS story... How you came to be a GWS/AFL fan?

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Drezdyn said:
I grew up in Western Sydney. I usually am a fan of RL (Dragons), and didn't care much for AFL, but was a dotted-line Essendon fan nonetheless. In 2008 I had to do some work down in Melbourne and decided to go to 2 Essendon Games.... One vs Hawthorn at Etihad and 1 vs Carlton at the G. I was blown away by the atmosphere of the crowd, and I developed a new appreciation for how tactical the game of AFL is.

I did consider becoming a swans fan when I got back, but I still can't get over the Warwick Capper/Eddelstone years. Also the SCG and Kings cross are two far away, so I never went to any games.

GWS is my local team and I'm glad it's there. Mind you it was pretty hard cheering against a Red and White team given that I'm a fan of St George and Bayern Munich.... but there's no way I can cheer against GWS. (I guess I'll have the swans as my no. 2 team.... so much for local rivalry).
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Can't believe how cordial I was towards the Swans when I first wrote this post. I'm was so young and naive!

So much has changed since then

now they emit a foul stench. I LOATHE them!

Go giants.
 
Born and raised in league territory.
Hate what league has become and how my club, tiges, have become.
Giants were originally just a team to have an interest in whenever i checked on the AFL. How that changed quickly.
Love the club and everything they are doing. Mistakes have been made but they always would happen. The majority of right calls have been made.
 

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General Giant said:
Hate what league has become and how my club, tiges, have become.
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You missed a great game on the weekend then. I was really hoping it would finish 2-0.
 
dlanod said:
You missed a great game on the weekend then. I was really hoping it would finish 2-0.
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Haha yeah heard about it.
Was on my way home after the game and then watched the swans. My brother is about to disown me i think.
He is gutted because as part of my wifes baby shower im taking all the men to a giants game and everyones kids are coming with the blokes. His children will see a live giants game before a tigers nrl game.
 
Born in a village just out of Leicester, England. Still follow the Foxes
Grew up in Greystanes supporting the Eels and played juniors for Wenty
Met a mate after High School Mid 80s who came from Launceston and wanted to play Rules so we joined the Eagles in the Sydney comp and I played a few seasons in the Magoos and started to follow The swans
League lost me when the superleague fiasco happened and I never went back. I watch only a few games a year now, GF and SOO.
Moved to Orange and had two boys When the Giants were starting up thought it would be a cool thing for my boys to be members from the very beginning so took out a family foundation membership. The oldest then 6yo won the Competition for the junior members to name the Mascot. G-man and got to run out with the team in their inaugural match against the swans at ANZ. We have only missed a few Sydney home games since. The trips to Sydney are a good opportunity to see the grandparents and for me and the boys to have a bit of time together, Still cannot get my wife to get excited about football though.
 
Born and raised in Adelaide, moved to Sydney four years ago. Followed Central Districts in the SANFL and love live footy. Have known Brett Hand for years as grew up across the road from him so choice of club was down to that really. Have loved having a club to follow over here, even the early days when we struggled as you could see the long term view the club was taking and the growth of the kids.


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Bogan Juniors said:
The oldest then 6yo won the Competition for the junior members to name the Mascot. G-man and got to run out with the team in their inaugural match against the swans at ANZ.
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How cool is that?:)

I mean running out with GMan and the team at any time would be fantastic for a kid. But Game 1. The absolute history? I was there in the stands and the breaking the banner gave me goosebumps, but to be breaking the barrier with them?

AWESOME.
 
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Bogan Juniors said:
Born in a village just out of Leicester, England. Still follow the Foxes
Grew up in Greystanes supporting the Eels and played juniors for Wenty
Met a mate after High School Mid 80s who came from Launceston and wanted to play Rules so we joined the Eagles in the Sydney comp and I played a few seasons in the Magoos and started to follow The swans
League lost me when the superleague fiasco happened and I never went back. I watch only a few games a year now, GF and SOO.
Moved to Orange and had two boys When the Giants were starting up thought it would be a cool thing for my boys to be members from the very beginning so took out a family foundation membership. The oldest then 6yo won the Competition for the junior members to name the Mascot. G-man and got to run out with the team in their inaugural match against the swans at ANZ. We have only missed a few Sydney home games since. The trips to Sydney are a good opportunity to see the grandparents and for me and the boys to have a bit of time together, Still cannot get my wife to get excited about football though.
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Your son and I both named something Giants related!!
 
Ichabod Noodle said:
How cool is that?:)

I mean running out with GMan and the team at any time would be fantastic for a kid. But Game 1. The absolute history? I was there in the stands and the breaking the banner gave me goosebumps, but to breaking the barrier with them?

AWESOME.
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I can honestly say I was more excited than he was :cool::D
The team were a bit excited as well as they left the two kids behind a bit, but I still watch the footage of the game every now and then to see them. The local paper here also did an article in him for that weekend as well and there was a small picture of him in all his gear on the front page with the headline, Jacks in the land of the Giants with nearly a full page article on him in the paper. We did give a copy to the club so hopefully it is somewhere amongst the memorabilia all clubs keep. Very cool indeed
 
Bogan Juniors said:
I can honestly say I was more excited than he was :cool::D
The team were a bit excited as well as they left the two kids behind a bit, but I still watch the footage of the game every now and then to see them. The local paper here also did an article in him for that weekend as well and there was a small picture of him in all his gear on the front page with the headline, Jacks in the land of the Giants with nearly a full page article on him in the paper. We did give a copy to the club so hopefully it is somewhere amongst the memorabilia all clubs keep. Very cool indeed
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How good is that!!!

I had Neil McMahon from The Age do a story on me for a Saturday edition last year.

I always thought if I made the papers it'd be me running out of court with a jacket over my face!
 

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:):):)Sitting here watching the footy one day and thought lets have a look at the Giants game flick the channel and there was collingwood and Giants game when Jeremy cameron kicked 7 instantly fell in love with the Giants and knew they were building a good club as well I love watching the draft and the talent coming through the Giants have a lot:)
 
I grew up in Western Sydney, born in to a Panthers family and I've been a lifelong supporter of the team.

AFL has always been an interesting sport to me but never followed it too closely due to it clashing with the NRL season.

Over the last couple of years I've grown incredibly frustrated with a number of aspects of the NRL, hence I went to my first Giants game last weekend against the crows. Had a great day, loved the stadium and the boys put on a show.

I'd been to a swans game a few years back and while I enjoyed the spectacle, the Swans just aren't a team I could really barrack for.

I'll always love the Panthers, I've sat in the same seats at Penrith Park for over 20 years but I'm really excited about the giants future and have already purchased tickets to next weeks game against the Lions.

Side note - I did some reading on the growth of the AFL versus the NRL. Rugby league has been moving sideways over the past 20 years while Aussie Rules has grown exponentially. Will be interesting to see if this trend plays out in western sydney over the coming years.
 
GiantPanther said:
I grew up in Western Sydney, born in to a Panthers family and I've been a lifelong supporter of the team.

AFL has always been an interesting sport to me but never followed it too closely due to it clashing with the NRL season.

Over the last couple of years I've grown incredibly frustrated with a number of aspects of the NRL, hence I went to my first Giants game last weekend against the crows. Had a great day, loved the stadium and the boys put on a show.

I'd been to a swans game a few years back and while I enjoyed the spectacle, the Swans just aren't a team I could really barrack for.

I'll always love the Panthers, I've sat in the same seats at Penrith Park for over 20 years but I'm really excited about the giants future and have already purchased tickets to next weeks game against the Lions.

Side note - I did some reading on the growth of the AFL versus the NRL. Rugby league has been moving sideways over the past 20 years while Aussie Rules has grown exponentially. Will be interesting to see if this trend plays out in western sydney over the coming years.
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Welcome aboard the G-train! One of the ways we will grow as a club is to appeal to supporters of other codes. There is room enough in Western Sydney for all the codes, and variety is what we need in our society.
 
I'm a Queenslander by birth, growing up in the rugby league nursery of the Toowoomba/Lockyer Valley region, with rugby union as the secondary sport followed. However, I like all sports, played soccer at school, and watched the AFL 'match of the day' on channel 7 regularly. Carlton was the first team I saw on TV (against Collingwood), so they became the team I followed until the Brisbane Bears came into existence. Of course, they had a pretty miserable performance until they became the Brisbane Lions and then came their historic 3-peat. By then, though, I had left Queensland when I joined the workforce.

I've worked/lived in Canberra, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, Canberra again, back to Sydney and finally back to Canberra at the start of this year. So, I've seen AFL up close during some of my nomadic existence, and did go to a grand final at the MCG many years ago. I married a South Australian, and her family are casual AFL followers (luckily Adelaide rather than Port). We never really followed Sydney Swans more than casually while in Sydney, though, and hardly went to any live games. However, during our last period in Sydney (living in the Hawkesbury region) my son began taking an interest in the AFL. He started out supporting Carlton (because an uncle supports Carlton and gave him some fan gear as presents), but AFL Auskick was conducted by GWS Giants as they had been given their licence and were trying to get a foothold. So, we went to a few games that first year in 2012 (regrettably didn't actually take out an inaugural year membership), and saw the young kids like Toby, Devon and Jezza in action. That was exciting (but raw), as was the game against Port Adelaide when GWS won their first game in Sydney. So, we joined the family as members in 2013 and have been members since then. I, my wife and son are all happy Giants fans (we all have second teams too); unfortunately our daughter has stubbornly held on as a patronising Swans fan (so watching round 1 2014 live was sweet payback to her!) We try to get to as many games as possible,unfortunately never all of them (between my work and kids' sporting commitments), but have enjoyed the increasing number and quality of wins over the last two years.

I reckon that we are right in the AFL's target demographic for western Sydney (and now Canberra). Open to supporting AFL and just needed the kick along provided by having a 'home team' at close range to be able to support live. AFL will hope that my children will carry that support into adulthood and their own families to make western Sydney AFL viable over the long term. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to watching the Giants continuing to develop, and hopefully make finals in the next couple of years. I do think, though, that we underestimate how difficult it is to reach the pinnacle and win the premiership flag - but it would be great if they can do so with a lot of the inaugural kids still around. Hopefully the next few years are an exciting ride!
 
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cant believe I haven't posted here lol

Foundation member in 2011 although I haven't renewed in the past 2 seasons due to work/other commitments. I plan on changing that next season :)

born & bred Western Sydney, I followed the Swans during the 05 & 06 finals series but being a lifelong Panthers fan, AFL was just "another sport to watch" and took a back seat. Not to mention growing up as a kid, you were considered weird if NRL wasn't your number 1 sport.

Like other RL fans on here, there's only so much crap you can put up with the direction its heading and im now at the point where i'd prefer to watch an AFL game over an NRL game.

the one thing that I love about GWS is watching the players grow & develop as a team. I remember early on in our existence, people saying to be patience, it will get better (some of those 100 point floggings were hard to take), but to actually now see us developing and becoming a respected team in the league gives me great pride in the team.

the one thing im waiting for and hopefully will happen soon is to see the Giants running out on the MCG for the GF.
 

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Social Your GIANTS story... How you came to be a GWS/AFL fan?

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