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Tigers versus Giants: Who are the AFL backing?

Liam Fraser new author
Roar Rookie
22nd September, 2017
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Who'll lift the cup on Saturday? (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
Liam Fraser new author
Roar Rookie
22nd September, 2017
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This Saturday afternoon, Richmond and GWS will meet in the preliminary final to complete the second piece of the grand final puzzle.

Victory this Saturday will mean a shot at the ultimate dream for two teams that many predicted would finish up at opposite ends of the ladder.

The Giants – pre-season flag favourites – will have achieved what was seen as the bare minimum for a club that is blessed with high draft picks and depth that could put two teams out on the park.

The Tigers, on the other hand, started the year with little expectation of being a finals contender after a dismal 2016 was coupled with the departure of club stalwart Brett Deledio.

The struggles of Richmond, though, have been long endured.

A force through the late 1960s and 1970s, the heady days came to an end in 1982 with their last grand final appearance, two seasons after claiming their 10th premiership. Since then the club has battled bankruptcy, collected four wooden spoons and become the poster club for calamity.

Regular ninth-placed finishes and disastrous trade and draft selctions (Richard Tambling anyone?) has beset the club for the past three decades, with just a flickering of finals appearances to tease their diehard fans. Even the finals triumvirate of 2012 to 2014 ended in first-week heartbreak, but their impressive showing against the Cats a fortnight ago places the Tigers in a preliminary final for just the third time in this barren stretch.

They always seemed destined to fall short in 1995 and 2001 but this year’s Tigers are the real deal, and much like the Bulldogs of last season, they’ve become the adopted side for many of the traditional fans of the game.

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Richmond, a club from the Melbourne heartland, based just a torpedo away from the home of football against the non-traditional, orange-coloured, manufactured side with its spoon-fed selection of draft picks and AFL handouts.

And while the Gold Coast continue to flounder, the Giants are making real strides as part of the AFL’s ‘expansion’.

Phil Davis GWS Giants AFL 2017

(Photo by Michael Dodge/Getty Images)

The AFL club whose rapid rise to success has been met with derision from many AFL fans. Yes, they picked up a couple of wooden spoons in their formative years, but that was seen as more a ticking of the box than legitimate rite of passage. That they now find themselves on the brink of a grand final (for a second straight year) in just their sixth season, would have been the plan all along at AFL headquarters.

Competition for the corporate dollar is at an all-time premium in the face of rising competitors and an increased CBA, success in the lucrative NSW market is vital. The Swans have carried the can for more than a decade, despite being unable to land the ultimate prize in recent years. Now the Giants, filled to the brim with brash, highly rated youngsters, are considered the next dynasty of the AFL.

So while the raucous Tigers fans and the curious Giants supporters watch their two sides thrash it out for a grand final berth, who will the AFL honchos want to see at the MCG on the last Saturday in September?

The Richmond army would create a buzz around the city in the build-up and an atmosphere within the ground seldom created by other supporter bases.

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But the AFL will be guaranteed their full house at the grand final, even if it is a non-Victorian affair, as the corporates and dignitaries fill their share of the stands. The cash cow for the AFL – certainly in terms of ticketing – is preliminary final weekend and with an estimated crowd of 98,000 to tick through the turnstiles (including the 1200 supporting GWS), their budget will be more than met.

On the flipside, the challenge for grand final day is the television audience and the Giants would capture the interest of the largest capital city market in the country.

With the Melbourne Storm leading the charge to claim the NRL premiership, the opportunity is there for the AFL to make a firm imprint north of the border. In fact, with the Sydney Roosters the only NSW side remaining in the final four, the AFL could find themselves the headline act in rugby league territory in the biggest week of the year for the two football codes.

There was a time in the early 1980s, when the AFL’s greatest hope of survival for many of its Victorian clubs was a successful Richmond outfit. The Tigers were the golden egg – if they were winning games of football, the coffers were full. Times are clearly better now and for the AFL their focus is no longer pinned in Victoria.

The Giants’ on-field performance of recent years may already have given Gil McLachlan and co the justification they needed for planting a team in Western Sydney, but a flag in 2017 could be the impetus the AFL needs to really flourish in the region.

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