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Kevin Sheedy addresses the media, 2008 - Slattery Images
Kevin Sheedy will coach West Sydney on a three-year appointment that will include the club’s first season in the AFL in 2012. That was the bombshell news delivered by the News Limited press late last night which will have the football world buzzing. The western Sydney AFL project suddenly has wings.
In fact, for many, this will suddenly legitimise the western Sydney adventure.
Sheedy has the charisma and media know how to generate the sort of press and attention needed to raise awareness in the region. As an ambassador and lover of the game, you sense he has the passion and desire to help spread the AFL gospel in rugby league’s heartland.
Like Ron Barassi’s move to Sydney in 1993 to help energize the faltering Swans, Sheedy’s move will help the team, and indeed the code, overcome the unique challenges of the Sydney market, especially in its western frontier.
Sheedy knows how to work the press. He will provide them with the sort of charisma, opinion and personality that the club needs to make an immediate impact. They suddenly have their figurehead, spokesperson, ambassador and coach, all in one package.
More importantly, he has a footballing brain like few in the game. 27 years coaching at Essendon, including four premierships, will mean the club will be able to create a footballing culture off the back of his experience; helping to build solid football foundations.
This is a huge signal of intent by the club and the AFL.
In many ways this move makes more sense than Gold Coast’s snaring of Karmichael Hunt. It certainly can’t be labeled as a publicity stunt, like Hunt’s signature was labelled in certain circles.
Hunt’s success on the Gold Coast depends on his ability to play. Should he fail to make the grade, he will be useless to the club in generating interest. It’s a gamble that could fail miserably.
There’s no question of Sheedy’s ability to perform, and certainly no gamble in this deal.
This doesn’t make western Sydney sudden contenders – it will still be an almighty challenge to create a club from scratch in a region without an AFL culture – but Sheedy will bring the necessary experience to help the club enormously through this process.
Results won’t matter right away; it’ll be how Sheedy is moulding the club from within while helping to build awareness for it in the marketplace.
There is an extra twist here. Sheedy undoubtedly feels as though he has unfinished business in the AFL having stumbled in his final years at Windy Hill.
His legend will only multiply should he help build a winning football culture in the region.
As for the code, they must be doing somersaults at AFL house.
According to News Limited, an AFL official said: “This is a match made in heaven. He is unbelievably excited about taking this on. Others would be daunted walking into rugby league heartland, but he is jumping out of his skin.”
Who can blame them for their excitement?
This is exactly what the code needed for its western Sydney adventure.
Congratulations to all involved.
It could be a defining moment in the AFL’s quest for the west.