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Here’s something to make you giggle. Graeme ‘Gubby’ Allan, Greater Western Sydney football manager, has predicted the AFL’s newest franchise will win a premiership by 2015.
That’s right, after entering the competition in 2012, the ultimate measure of success may be only three years away.
“That’s the plan – whether it happens, I can tell you I’m very confident now,” he told The Footy Show.
Cmon Gubby, it’s time to wake from your obvious slumber and get a grip on reality.
The most staggering part of his bold claim is that GWS haven’t played a game yet. Well, not a real one. They have certainly played a number of practice matches against seasoned AFL footballers and been belted to within an inch of their life.
But to win a flag, apart from a bit of luck, you need an experienced and talented playing list along with a club administration of the same quality. Premierships rarely, if ever, come when one is lacking. Now either Allan knows something we don’t know or he’s gone stark raving mad.
Either way, predictions of premierships before officially entering the competition is ludicrous and leaves you open for exorbitant amounts of ridicule.
GWS are in the midst of an armchair ride not afforded to any other club in history other than the Gold Coast and still, until this season is over, we won’t be fully aware of any dealings or discussions with soon to be uncontracted players.
But if you pick up the paper on any given day you will most certainly read ad nauseum, about Tom Scully and Callan Ward. Scully will be a star but he isn’t yet. Ward is a good, honest player but hardly one of the game’s greats and certainly not worth anywhere near the ridiculous sums of money being bandied around for his services.
But despite the boredom and monotony of the Scully and Ward future, there is no doubt there are other high profile players in the sights of GWS and they may just sign a host of big names but premiership success is still never guaranteed – even Allan knows that.
Allan is an experienced football manager at both Collingwood and Brisbane, tasting premiership success at both clubs creating an incredibly over inflated opinion of himself or just someone with a highly compromised and distorted view of the real world.
“I’ve been involved in premierships at two clubs and I think I know how to (build) a premiership list.”
It sounds to me like he’s trying to convince himself.
With such a wealth of experience it might just pay for him to look at the history of several established AFL clubs just to understand what a difficult task winning a flag is. After well over 100 attempts, St Kilda and the Western Bulldogs have one flag a piece. The Dockers too are yet to taste success since their inception in 1995.
Even if GWS have agreements in place to sign some high profile players at season’s end, it’s going to take a lot longer than a few years to win a flag.
There is also a view in Sydney that the appointment of Kevin Sheedy will be the masterstroke that provides early success. Sure he may be more experienced than any other available coach but his recent coaching record at Essendon is average to say the least. His last three years saw woeful recruiting decisions along with finishes of 13th, 15th and 12th. That’s hardly flag worthy.
GWS, as with the Suns, have been given huge amounts of money and draft picks to ensure success as early as possible but there is one thing that Graeme Allan and others seem to be forgetting.
There are 16 established AFL clubs just waiting to have a crack at GWS from next year and concessions aside, it’s not going to be as easy as he thinks.
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