GWS predicts 2015 premiership success

GWS has announced the signing of three rookies on international scholarships: http://www.worldfootynews.com/article.php/20110710181236318 the three are from Nauru, PNG and NZ.

GWS doing a skills session at Blacktown, incl three international scholarship holders: http://yfrog.com/kggz8nj

Mintern20 says: Great day at the home of the @GWS_Giants - great crowd support, GIANTS beat Lions, Izzy kicks 4 AND 70 new foundation members! #orangearmy

GWS has just recorded a strong win over the Lions reserves, Izzy got 4 goals: http://www.gwsgiants.com.au/young-guns-secure-giant-victory.html

You say Sydney people have complained about it, then say so you are going to give us even more? Does that make sense? Why? To torture us? Do you hate us that much? Do you like burning money? You don't have anything better to do? Nothing about the AFL makes sense. But with supporters like Uncle Bob, Republican, Clipper, and Redb and all their madcap opinions....what could you expect? Sing along everyone, 'Rule Demetriou, the AFL rules the waves...'

AFL teams cannot survive in areas of low turnout and support. You can run a rugby club on the smell of an oily rag and a few poker machines, if the recent media is anything to go by, but your average AFL club has more staff, more infrastructure requirements, and more revenue required t support it than would be available in the NT, Tasmania or even the ACT at the present time. 15k is less than half the current AFL average crowd, and is about all that the NT/ACT grounds can take. These areas are perenially doomed to have a couple of matches a year for a long time to come.

Sydney people have often complained about AFL advertising in various media forms. I doubt you've seen a tenth of the hype that will begin in Sydney media next year. The AFL has been woeful in its promotion of the code in Sydney before GWS - to the point that the Swans complained about it a couple of years ago when bugger all people showed up to ANZ for a match. That will be history next year.

Baseball is not that popular, but in some ways it has its niche as a bat-ball sport simply because club cricket was too time intensive (standing around for several hours on a Saturday and Sunday). Basketball is an indoor sport, and an Olympic sport with worldwide appeal. League was about paying players for broken time and there was a call for it (depending on which side of history you sit). The point I'm trying to make though Jackson is that AR is just another code of football. There are already 4 pro RL teams and a host of amateur ones for 4 different codes. You can't just then 'market' the club as a 'gimmick' and expect success. This is the perception - that it's not about building a club in the Western Suburbs, but a gimicky 'franchise' that's about generating dollars in terms of media rights. People also don't like being aggressively sold to.

AFL has been live into Sydney homes since the 1970's Uncle Bob. That's 40 years already. Swans have been here 30 years. (Wow, it's like taking a walk on the wild side on an AFL thread, Uncle Bob, Republican, Redb..)That means Sydney has had 4 codes of football for over thirty years. All of them professional for the last 15 years. Melbourne has had 4 professional codes for 1 year. But Sydney is wide open for an AFL conversion so that we will end up finally just like Melbourne...land of the AFL dinosaurs. I can totally see your logic.

'I will be surprised if AFL is not the dominant footballing code in the north by then. If not, throw more teams and money at it until the whole joint is swamped.' You think by shoving more teams would mean the people up north would instantly fall in love in well you dead wrong even more laughable to suggest AFL will be number 1 up north you can't change enriched culture. AFL is number one in southern states while NRL is number 1 up north and it will stay that way unless you can state evidence otherwise. Plonking teams here and there in QLD/NSW won't work at all.

We keep hearing about the problems in Sydney. Why do people stay? There are jobs in other parts. Been there numerous times. Just do not see what the big deal is. Les Murray lives there, so maybe there is something. Maybe the Hungarian club. I suppose if you like the ladies you would be in paradise with little competition. Still, it is a big sacrifice to go there.

It's possible what you say. The big difference with AFL compared to the A-League and NRL is that all Giants and Swans matches will be beamed live into every NSW residents home on free to air tele. That is 100 percent of tv homes get these games. Not 20 percent as you get with Foxtel/Austar. Give it 20 to 30 years then let us talk. I will be surprised if AFL is not the dominant footballing code in the north by then. If not, throw more teams and money at it until the whole joint is swamped. Never forget, NRL and union has been there for 120 odd years and struggles for attendances and to be a clear cut dominant code. It is wide open in Sydney.

Well, if the AFL players get what they want from the next CBA. They will make it very attractive for young athletes to jump to the big bucks of AFL footy. The poker machine money which bankrolls NRL looks to be running out of public favour.

Geographically you might say Parramatta is the 'hub' of Western Sydney, but it is rather spread out and the transport infrastructure here is near 3rd world standard (probably reflecting the 3rd world standards of corruption in local government in Sydney and NSW).

NRL thrives on controversy and so GWS have taken the same path (I hope) but I cant agree they have targeted the Hills district. If they were based in Campbelltown people would accuse them of being focussed on SW Sydney.. There is no such thing as a hub of western Sydney as many people have suggested so the Olympic site at Rouse Hill, a compliant council and a growth area of 500K people in the next 20 years seems a good place to start. The melbourne Storm won in 1999 because they closed down the Rams, Reds and Mariners and the best players (and Lazarus form News Ltd Broncos) got together a great Storm team. Thats not possible in the AFL so they are hardly being arrogant by getting young players to build a team...

It has taken some clubs like the Bulldogs and St Kilda a long time to get close to winning a flag. Not sure GWS can win one so quickly.

2015 NAH - with all the concessions the AFL is giving them they will win next year. I heard they are going to be alout to get 8 points fotr a goal and three for a behinf to even it up.

Perhaps a 'top end' side then, that represented the NT, FNQ and even PNG? Fixtures can easily be scheduled at night to counter the heat factor. Footy seasons start prematurely anyway these days, so athletes are already exposed to heat even in the south as a result. I don't believe there exists any tyranny of distance in this day and age. WA is certainly a long haul from anywhere on the Eastern seaboard yet that has never been seen as a deterrent to placing elite brands in Perth. They already have Soccer, Union and of course AFL represented there and League is currently toying with the idea of going West as well. As much as I would love to see the nations capital rewarded for it's historic footy pedigree, I don't think it will happen sadly. We will be expected to be sated with the left overs that come our way, expediently bestowed upon us by the codes governing body, GWS the latest token offering. Tassie of course, should have been afforded membership of the nations most esteemed footy league long before now.

I agree, NT should (eventually) get a team. However it faces even more challenge in its logistics than Tassie with a divided and small population. Do you play home games in Darwin or Alice? Share? Even for attendances at Traeger Park for show-games featuring AFL teams they have pulled reasonable base crowds there, over the 15K mark, however many of these people came from the communities around, and the city itself remains challenged by the influx of people from outlying areas during these times - it might not support games being more regular. Darwin as the standard home ground then obviously further faces the challenge of weather extremes and maintaining a 'playable' surface for much of the year. Unfortunately the NT will thus come well after Tassie and Canberra to get its own team, and probably after even FNQ and WA3.

Not sure if you've got that right with the Rebels GR. They certainly have more general support than the Storm around Melbourne, mostly thanks expats from the UK, but 'crying out for a franchise' is a little ambitious a call.