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A message for the Giant haters

19th September, 2017
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Steve Johnson (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Roar Guru
19th September, 2017
166
2042 Reads

In light of Greater Western Sydney making it through to the preliminary final, I felt the need to express my feelings for the club I love so dearly.

I bet you are wondering, “Did this bloke only start liking AFL two years ago? How can he love a club that gets fewer than 15,000 to a final? Is he riding the bandwagon?”

Trust me, I’ve heard it all.

After joining up as a foundation member, recently I have experienced a lot of highs, but the first three seasons were definitely lows, as experienced veterans and 18-year-old kids were trampled by the best the AFL had to offer.

They were wonderful days at Skoda Stadium when Adelaide and Collingwood came to town in 2012, the Giants being thumped by more than 100 points on each occasion.

If you are not a member of the ‘Orange Army’, you probably don’t like us, or our draft concessions, or the fact that we are pretty good at the game that your team has been playing since the 1800s.

I don’t think anyone expected the Giants would get where they have this quickly, and that is what really infuriates the AFL’s diehard fans.

GWS have grown from strength to strength, and retained a significant amount of the talent they drafted over the past six years.

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When they were a team you could treat as a set of witch’s hats, the football community forgot that they even existed. Now they are playing for a spot in the premiership decider for the second year in a row.

The Giants put so much back into the community of western Sydney. They have multiple fan days, and open training sessions almost every week during the season. They visit Auskick nights all over the west every week.

The players are always around and accessible for a chat. They want the team to grow and they love the culture that has been created. This is why they want to stay and it is a major contributor of why they are going to be pushing for flags over the next few years, with the premiership window wide open.

But has anyone in the AFL media ever written a heartfelt piece about GWS? The club is great and hopefully they will stop being classed as soulless.

The Giants were created by the AFL. If you don’t like them, does that mean you don’t like football?

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