Giants coach Kevin Sheedy and Israel Folau take the stage during the Greater Western Sydney unveiling of its club name and colours at the Sydney Showgrounds, Sydney. Slattery Images
Remember your first day of high school? Remember that nervous and uneasy feeling before you entered the school’s premises? You didn’t know what kind of work to expect in class. You had no idea where any of the classrooms were.
More importantly, you were desperate to impress the cool kids at lunchtime so you didn’t finish your first day as a year seven student headfirst in the dumpster.
Scary, right?
However the school and its teachers – it’s hoped – did their best to ensure your first day was just as enjoyable as your last. They gave you directions to your next class, played down the work you’d cover in class and assured you the other school kids weren’t as bad as they seemed.
But unlike the school and its teachers, the AFL has not treated its newest team with the same amount of care.
The 2011 NAB Cup will be remembered as Greater Western Sydney’s embarrassing inauguration into the AFL. The club was unfairly forced into a position it was clearly ill-equipped for.
You won’t see anyone affiliated with the club complain about the situation. But surely even they know in their own hearts that the team should never have been welcomed into a highly-professional league at such an early stage in the club’s history.
The Giants, a team full of skinny under 19 kids, have lost all their preseason games so far – comprehensively too. The combined losing margin from their four matches equalled 334 points – that’s 84 points per game.
Two of those matches took place in the first round of the NAB Cup, where a game ran for 40 minutes instead of a standard 120-minute match. It could’ve been much worse.
Perhaps GWS’ most humiliating performance was its 157-point thrashing at the hands of Carlton just over a week ago.
While eight teams battled for a semi-final place in the NAB Cup, Carlton travelled up to Canberra to take on the young Giants in a NAB Challenge practice game. What transpired bordered on the line between awkward and ridiculous.
Ponder these stats – the Blues had 66 forward 50 entries to GWS’ paltry 16. They also collected a whopping 50 clearances to 18.
It doesn’t get any easier to absorb.
The Blues accumulated 131 more kicks, 198 more disposals and 78 more marks than their lacklustre opponents.
Glenn Luff from Champion Data – the AFL’s official stats carrier – claimed he had never seen a game where stats were so heavily weighted to one team.
Certain television programs – like the AFL Footy Show – often benefit greatly from negative publicity. The media always pounces on a controversial moment in an attempt to cause a public ruckus, but inadvertently encourage more people to tune in.
But in the case of the Giants, bad publicity is bad publicity.
This club already has an incredibly difficult task – to build a successful franchise in a Rugby League heartland. Surely if the AFL wanted the Giants to have a strong following when they officially enter the competition next year, they needed to begin with strong performances that would impress the people of Western Sydney.
Now, 334 losing points later, all the AFL has done is shamed a vulnerable club and wasted the time of some of the more established clubs.
Yes, the experience of playing against the best players in the land would’ve been a huge thrill for the Giants’ youngsters. Yes, the team’s matches have exposed the sport to Sydneysiders and gained a further 500 club members during the past fortnight.
But the wellbeing of the more well-known AFL clubs has been totally ignored.
Heading into the home-and-away season, teams want competitive practice matches – not walkovers.
In fact, after seeing Sydney and Carlton demolish the uncompetitive Giants in the past few weeks, Port Adelaide requested the AFL cancel its match against them this Saturday night at Willaston. The Power pointed out to the AFL it would rather play a team from the SANFL then face the Giants. The match will still go ahead.
So why did the AFL expose the Giants so early?
Marketing.
There is no better man in the country to sell and coach the Giants than Kevin Sheedy. He is the ultimate mastermind when it comes to advertising the AFL product and there’s no doubt he can build a successful club.
But even a man of Sheedy’s calibre and knowledge can’t cover this one up. Stats and scoreboards don’t lie and it wouldn’t be a surprise to learn if other AFL clubs feel the same way as the Power.
The decision to include GWS in this year’s preseason matches wasn’t to even up the numbers in an odd numbered competition. The AFL could’ve easily found another solution if they wanted to.
Like Israel Folau’s recruitment from the NRL, it was a marketing-focused decision. Now the AFL must admit it has failed and wasted the time of a number of parties.
The AFL introduced the Giants at their weakest and most underprepared state. That’s not how you should be treated on your first day.
Rob McLean
Guest
Will Willaston Oval be big enough for him????? If anyone's going to the game, make sure you leave time for a pub crawl in Gawler - soooo many pubs in such a close proximity! Dangerous. Catch the train out to game and do it safely...
MyLeftFoot
Roar Guru
Izzy ready to play his first game against Port in final round of practice matches: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/israel-folau-ready-for-afl-debut-for-greater-western-sydney/story-e6frf9jf-1226018542965 He's looking pretty fit in this photo.
GoGWS
Roar Guru
why expose them so early...yes a lot of it it was to help market the team....so what is exactly so evil about that??...there is nothing to 'cover up' as you say....everybody knew what the AFL was doing, everyone associated with the Giants and all opposition AFL clubs....get over your fake outrage...
GoGWS
Roar Guru
the AFL failed??...mmm..... well the AFL, the Giants coaches/players/fans/sponsors/members all expected them to lose big time...so who's disappointed?..nobody that matters....you're inventing 'failure' that's just not there..
Rob McLean
Roar Guru
These massive pre-season losses have been occurring for years. Over the past decade, SANFL clubs have played both Port and Adelaide in trial games and been well hammered. It hasn't harmed the SANFL clubs, the SA based AFL teams or the AFL itself. The opportunity for the players to see how far they actually need to progress and to experience a quicker match than they have experienced in the past would have been beneficial. While, for the other clubs involved, they can work on their systems with a modicum of pressure being placed upon them. Of course, people with other agendas could possibly look at it as a failure, not that I'm suggesting the author of this piece is among those.
Stupid
Guest
And which clubs from across Australia do you suppose would be willing to give up their best players to fill out such a side for a novelty four weeks stretch, when they themselves are preparing for their seasons ahead? GWS were a fine inclusion. The alternative would have been a bye or playing lower league teams, which would have produced similar results.
Wayno
Guest
Ports last hit out before the Pies in round 1, Primus will be wanting to give his best players a decent run. It's hard to imagine another major hiding isn't on the cards this weekend.
TW
Guest
GWS need all the help they can get. At this time playing full strength AFL clubs is all part of the process and is part of the considerable publiicity effort being mounted by the club. Would love to see the post codes of their current members - We will probably never know the breakdown unless it is to their advantage in some way to release the info,
MyLeftFoot
Roar Guru
You can't go into a game with 16 skinny outside runners (the bullies used to do that once, they too used to get hammered)
MyLeftFoot
Roar Guru
I thnk they've got one ruckman with a bit of experience (not much), but a key position palyer at either end and an extra hardened midfielder would have helped quite a bit.
The_Wookie
Roar Guru
yeah Ill grant that they should have taken experienced bigger bodies from the ACT and SydneyAFL leagues at least, and still achieved the same aims
MyLeftFoot
Roar Guru
As wookie says, and mds makes a similar point, it was l about convenience, making the number of teams even in the pre-season. You may as well give the kids a taste of it. We all knew they were going to be clobbered, it would be like an AFL team taking on the Vic U18s. One thing for sure, Sheeds will know who is capable of taking the next step, and who has question marks against their name, or needs to work harder. As Sheeds said: you can talk all you want about the intensity, about how fast the game will be, how you'll be lucky to get a split second on the ball before you need to do something with it, but you only ever know the truth of that when you're out there. One point I would add in support of this article is that I wonder why GWS didn't recruit a few experienced bigger bodies into their squad to assist the kids - that definitely is a question worth asking.
mds1970
Roar Guru
It's a one-off situation where a new club is a year away from its AFL debut and an even number of teams is required for a series of trial games. No-one expected miracle upsets. But it's been a valuable learning experience for these kids; and already we see signs of progress. The way they bounced back against the Suns after the Swans game; and their vastly improved performance against North Melbourne last week shows the character of these kids. They may be out-gunned but they don't drop their heads. These kids are learning fast, and for the likes of a Dylan Shiel or a Curtly Hampton these few weeks will be a key part of their development. While this happens, the club gets exposure, Kevin Sheedy gets media oxygen and the club is out there selling memberships. The Giants may not be winning games. But this is a worthwhile experience.
amazonfan
Roar Guru
I agree. While Wookie is right concerning the membership/exposure parts of the equation, I think that the AFL failed to take into account the interests of the other clubs. It is not in any club's interest to have such a massive win in the pre-season. Port Adelaide's interests would not be served by having to play against GWS, and the AFL should have seen beyond the marketing/membership side.
Hk47
Guest
Should have been a rest of Australia team. I've been insisting that since it was announced to be 18 teams. Best players from State Leagues, an maybe some good players from GWS such as Giles. -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.
The_Wookie
Roar Guru
Actually I think it was convenience. Odd numbers of teams are terribly inconvenient, and it was after all only the NAB Cup. Then Marketing. Whatever it was, it will work for GWS more than not. GWS Memberships continue to rise as a result. GWS has had massive exposure as a result, and kids from the ACT and NSW who may never play an AFL game will have had a taste of what to expect and will now know what they need to do to make it at the higher grades. It should be a boom year for the ACT league. Its not a bad thing to expose them early - most players on the list wont be there when the list is finalised if the Suns lineup was anything to go by. They've had some revelations there too, 3 or 4 players at least who are going to be stars at AFL level when they get a decent team around them. For a team trying to get members and sponsors, this has been a god send. Closing in on 9,000 foundation members in March (8607 at time of writing) puts them ahead of the Suns at the same period last year. (and the Suns now have more than 11,000 paid up members). Its far more than some team like oh say the CC Bears (RL) have, and they've been around for a lot longer. Further, they've been able to travel around their zone exposing the locals to AFL footy. The West Sydney, the ACT, and Albury have both benefited from this. In fact 6,000 people packed into Lavington Panthers Oval is a win by any stretch.If anything Id have liked to see them play a game at Wagga this weekend instead of Gawler. Really ram the message home. Oh well.