Well here we go again. Another AFL season and another new team. This time it’s Greater Western Sydney, the AFL’s biggest roll of the dice.
In 2011 Greater Western Sydney played 18 games in the NEAFL, winning 12. At their best, they put together a five game winning streak, including a high-scoring encounter with the Brisbane Lions seconds team, scoring 21.14(141) to 19.16(130).
Under the watchful eye of Kevin Sheedy, the Giants have 36 players that have yet to play a proper AFL game, including former rugby league player Israel Folau. They have three that have played between one and 50 games, including Phil Davis, Tom Scully and Sam Reid from the Western Bulldogs.
Setanta O’Hailpin, Callan Ward and Rhys Palmer fall into the 51-100 games range, former Port Adelaide ruckman Dean Brogan is the only player between 101 and 200, while Luke Power, James McDonald and Chad Cornes have all played over 200 league matches.
Power, who retired from the Lions last season, announced that he would play for the league’s newest team in addition to taking on an assistant coaching role, akin to McDonald. Their experience, along with that of Brogan and Cornes, will be extremely valuable to the young players.
Sheeds will be joined in the box by 2004 Port Adelaide premiership coach Mark Williams, who takes on the role of senior assistant coach. One may say he will be the ‘real’ coach of the Giants, with the marketing left to Sheedy.
2012 could well be a season of compare, compare, compare – Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney.
One person who strongly believes that Greater Western Sydney won’t deliver much is Adelaide Crows recruiting boss Matt Rendell. Who could forget his press conference? “They will be deplorable. They will finish stone motherless last, they are going to be shocking. Why would you expect them to be better (than Gold Coast) last year?”
Will Rendell be correct in his thoughts or is he simply jealous? The Giants boast 14 top 14 picks from the past five drafts.
For me, I have placed watch tags on Taylor Adams from the Geelong Falcons, Matt Buntine who was awarded the Ben Mitchell medal in 2011 after being voted by his AIS/AFL academy peers as the best performer, the 194cm forward Jeremy Cameron, and Stephen “Cliffo” Clifton, who I am stating right now will be the next Brad Sewell, if not better.
I’m also looking at the 2011 second draft selection Stephen Coniglio, Sam Darley up back, Toby Greene who starred in the TAC Cup last year with Oakleigh, Will Hoskin-Elliott, Anthony Miles, number one pick Jonathon Patton, ball-magnet and goal-kicking midfielder Dylan Shield and another Oakleigh midfielder Dom Tyson.
You can see why I think the Giants will be exciting to watch this season.
Cam Larkin
Roar Guru
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The Cattery
Roar Guru
Sounds like a rogue recruitment officer who will be lucky to keep his job - according to Demetriou, the CEO of the club concerned has denied the story (naturally enough).
Jaceman
Guest
The timing of this story is interesting - just before Sheeds debuts the AFL in the national capital- does anyone know if this is a recent story or one being held in reserve???
Jaceman
Guest
Saturday Daily Telegraph for a Giants one and Sunday Telegraph for a Swans one...
The Cattery
Roar Guru
When are the fandanas available?
The Cattery
Roar Guru
I think he's on the rookie list, might be that Sheeds only played the rookie listed players in the shorter games (where you can play 34 players for the night), and then started nailing down the senior team thereafter.
TomC
Guest
Ian, I see Cooyou didn't play in the NAB Cup after the round robin. Is he injured? He looked very much at home out there, to me.
TomC
Guest
...or the Blues players who were stunned by a rampant Suns team in 2011...oh wait...
Ian Whitchurch
Guest
Im going to be blunt here. If thats true, a coach who can get the best out of Aboriginal players *cough Sheeds cough* is going to have a heck of an advantage, as they will pick up first-round talent for much less. Rhys Cooyou and Curtly Hampton are big parts of the future of my Giants.
Adrian
Guest
I think the Crows were also playing on an incredible emotional high, every player played out of their skins, probably would have beaten anyone that night.
Jaceman
Guest
Of course all newspapers will be forgiven when I buy my weekend Daily Telegraph which has Giants/Swans fandanas to give away on consecutive days. No wonder the Fairfax press is miffed...
Jaceman
Guest
I think the Crows had a lot of seasoned older players who had sidestepped the draft previously and the Hawks had partied hard after winning the pre-season Cup. On better news , the AFL made the back page of the Sydney Morning Herald - well it was bad news of course but.. http://www.smh.com.au/afl/afl-news/afl-clubs-unwritten-rule-on-aborigines-20120315-1v8cz.html Of course there was small paragraph about the Swans 14 pages into the sports section while the other codes received 8-10 pages in total
TomC
Guest
I don't think so, Cameron. http://www.sportingpulse.com/comp_info.cgi?a=ROUND&round=15&client=1-8334-0-153926-0&pool=1 http://www.sportingpulse.com/comp_info.cgi?a=ROUND&round=7&client=1-8334-0-153926-0&pool=1 By sheer coincedence, the Giants also had a 111 to 74 win over the Suns. http://www.sportingpulse.com/comp_info.cgi?a=ROUND&round=10&client=1-8334-0-153926-0&pool=1
Cam Larkin
Roar Guru
TomC ... need to check your facts - that was the scoreline from the Giants v Suns game. The Lions v Giants game was correct as I reported.
Jason Cave
Guest
The Sydney Swans would be wise not to take GWS lightly. Ask any of the North Melbourne players who were on the receiving end of a suprise Brisbane Bears win in 1987; or the Hawthorn players who were on the wrong end of an 86 point smashing by the Adelaide Crows in Round 1, 1991, at Football Park (now AAMI Stadium).
Norm
Guest
The publicity given the Storm in all media in Melbourne is far more than is deserved by their attendances. In the Herald-Sun they get as much as any of the AFL clubs. Attendance last week was 15k. Better than average, but nowhere near the AFL average
Ian Whitchurch
Guest
A team list that includes several injured and unfit players isnt particularily useful. Lets see how the Richmond game goes, and then have a think.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
13 debutants, becomes 16 debutants with the 3 injuries - that hurts.
TomC
Guest
Yeah, the win over the NT Thunder was a much more impressive result. The point I was making, and to be blunt I thought it was pretty obvious, was that it seemed strange to single out a result against the Brisbane Lions reserves over all the other results. Bear in mind that the Lions reserves top up players aren't anywhere near the standard required to be AFL footballers, so it makes any result against them a bit meaningless in that regard.
Strummer Jones
Guest
GWiS membership now 7000 ...and from one of the papers comes the likely line-up R1 (before the Brogan et al injuries of course) B Tomas Bugg 18 (0) Tim Mohr 23 (0, Chad Cornes 32 (239) HB Luke Power 32 (282) Phil Davis 21 (18) Adam Kennedy 19 (0) C Rhys Palmer 22 (53) Callan Ward 21 (60) Adam Treloar 18 (0) HF Curtly Hampton 18 (0, Jeremy Cameron 18 (0) Nathan Wilson, 19 (0) F Setanta O'Ailpin 28 (80) Israel Folau 22 (0) Devon Smith 18 (0) R Dean Brogan 33 (174) James McDonald 35 (251) Tom Scully 20 (31) INT Jonathan Giles24 (0), Dylan Shiel 18 (0), Stephen Coniglio18 (0), Steve Clifton 24(0)