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Another week, another loss. And this time it was a big one. Whoever said that GWS were not going to suffer the big losses of last year were wrong.
It’s just that GWS haven’t really played the big boys of the competition yet until the past two weeks.
Yes, they really scared Essendon for a half, but everyone knew it was inevitable that Essendon would switch on.
And they gave Sydney a decent game, but it was Round 1 and Sydney are not, nor ever seem to be, the team that would run a cricket score over weaker opposition.
The next four matches GWS play will be Hawthorn, a resurgent West Coast, Carlton and then Geelong. There is absolutely no question that these will be losses, the size of which will be determined not by the effort of GWS but whether the opposition can be bothered to turn it on for four quarters.
The AFL has made three big mistakes in the creation of GWS:
1. Allowing GWS to field a team of draft picks. This has been a whopping failure. This strategy does not guarantee future success. Look at Melbourne now, or Richmond, or Carlton in the early 2000’s when they tried it. Some of these draftees are not up to AFL or VFL muster. If you can’t kick to your unmarked teammate 25m away, you should not be playing AFL. It’s that simply.
A good team needs a mix of draftees, seasoned heads, a star or two, and some good reliable journeymen. GWS have none of them. The Gold Coast at least have a few in each of these categories.
2. The AFL wrongly assumed that Sydneysiders would be patient and tolerate initial and inevitable failures. They were wrong. The AFL clearly has severely misinterpreted the Sydney sport lover’s psyche.
Sydneysiders will not pay good money to travel out to an inconvenient stadium (and all stadiums in Sydney are poorly located) to watch a team that is guaranteed to lose. They will, however, pay that coin and spend the effort of getting to the stadium if the odds are in favour of a win.
Sending 18-year-old boys out to be belted week in, week out means that Sydneysiders will slot comfortably in the former category. There is no loyalty to the club or game in Sydney like there is in Melbourne.
5000 turned up and saw Adelaide demolish GWS. They play West Coast there in a fortnight. It would be a tough to ask the 5000 to bother coming again.
GWS needed to have a team of fringe players from other teams and a selection of hardened VFL players, not 18-year-old boys.
3. GWS should not have spent their ‘warm up’ year in the NEAFL. GWS needed to go and play in the VFL like the Gold Coast. And in hindsight, GWS probably should have spent two years down there, to get the boys hardened and fit for four quarters of football.
The NEAFL is not a second-tier standard of football that the VFL, WAFL or SANFL is. It is third-tier. GWS were barely able to beat the NEAFL teams and were then told to compete in the AFL? Madness.
How long will fans have to put up with sustained and guaranteed failure?
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