Greater Western Sydney’s Kevin Sheedy wants to deliver two experienced AFL recruits to his club at the end of his 29th and final season as a head coach.
Lance Franklin and Jack Riewoldt have been bandied about as potential marquee signings for the Giants, who need a drawcard and boast cash to splash after Israel Folau’s departure to rugby union.
GWS’s general manager of football Graeme `Gubby’ Allan and list chief Stephen Silvagni have driven much of the expansion side’s recruitment to date.
But Sheedy vowed on the eve of the Giants’ clash with West Coast that he would become more active in dealing with trade targets and out-of-contract stars.
“I’m a little bit more heavily involved in recruiting I’d say at the present time than I have been in the last couple of years,” Sheedy said on Friday.
“I’ll get more heavily involved in recruiting (at the end of the season), there’s no doubt about that.”
Sheedy said age was of no concern in his search for a big-name player, and that his shopping list was simple.
“I think we could definitely afford two (out-of-contract experienced players) and … we definitely need a key forward, a key back and a key ruck,” the four-time premiership coach said.
“We’ve got enough small players.
“Kurt Tippett we didn’t get …. sooner or later, there’s going to be someone that will come up (to western Sydney).”
Eagles coach John Worsfold, who flanked Sheedy at Friday’s press conference ahead of their home clash in Sydney on Saturday, suggested GWS were going to be a great side.
“It’s a matter of time and that (one or two senior players) would accelerate it,” Worsfold said of the cellar dwellers, who have collected two wins from their 30 games to date.
Worsfold and Sheedy laughed as they shared recollections about Essendon and the Eagles’ rivalry in the 1990s.
But Sheedy said there was no place for nostalgia as he prepared for his last game against West Coast, the club on the receiving end of his iconic jacket-waving and throat-slitting gestures.
“I never thought of it that way. I don’t worry about that, I’ve nearly done my 50 years in footy and I think it’s about the young kids coming through and superstars like Nic Naitanui,” he said.
Allan
Guest
Oh that's brilliant, feel free to investigate before you make such absurd comments next time lol
yewonk
Guest
ofcourse the aleague have indigenous players what made you think they did not?
Stavros
Guest
Allan - do you think the A League will have an indigenous round? Probably difficult when you don't have any indigenous players.
Allan
Guest
Tokenism at its finest, indigenous kids in Western Sydney would be well aware of how badly the AFL has stuffed up the Indigenous round, if not on the weekend then definitely after today's events.
Jimbo
Guest
Here you go Allan, lap it up, enjoy. Helping indigenous kids today in WS :) http://www.aflnswact.com.au/index.php?id=5&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=1749&tx_ttnews[backPid]=4&cHash=d35c9afeb2
Allan
Guest
Thanks for that, now feel free to look up the orange and grey army like I said not the team itself.
Allan
Guest
Wow so they're using sick kids to help them get noticed now ? That's a new low, but not unexpected really.
Melbourne is the new Adelaide
Guest
Thanks Allan. I seldom look at my facebook account but decided to actually check if you were lying or telling the truth. As Jimbo states there are actually 30,000+ likes (whatever that is!!). Decided I might as well click on 'like' as well (is that why Sydney high school girls say "like" all the time? I wondered what that was all about). Now to be fair, I think you went to the "Greater Western Sydney" page which has only a few hundred "likes" and not the GWS Giants, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.
Jimbo
Guest
Just visited the site, not a big facebbok fan, but the Giants have ...and i quote ...30,483 .... nope 30, 484 likes.. :) They visited a hospital today in WS, did you see them ?. https://www.facebook.com/GWSGiants Thanks for visiting Allan.
Allan
Guest
They spent more of our money on BISP after being conned by the AFL that they'd play home games there. Sydney sports fans were unloyal before the Wanderers, the GWS Giants supporters group has 67 likes on Facebook, the Wanderers group has 9000, like the NRL said 'Western Sydney will be your Vietnam, its very dark right now for AFL and there's no way out. If you think we will eventually stop putting the boot into this team you are dead wrong, until they move to Canberra permanently they're going to cop it.
Simmo
Guest
Tell that to Atlanta Thrashers fans. And the axe is hanging over the Coyotes as well.
Redb
Roar Guru
says Allan the Minister of Misinformation
Chairman Kaga
Guest
Dear fellow Roarers, before you continue slagging off GWS in the future read up on the NHL expansion of 1967. That was monumental compared to what the AFL has to do. Hockey was not even played in a lot of the towns that sport went to and it has worked incredibly well. As for the "sleeping giant sport", it has slept through it's wake up call for yet another decade.
Chairman Kaga
Guest
Excuse me, didn't Julia Gillard's government directly pump millions in to create the Wanderers? Suppose we gotta have something to pad out Foxtel in the summer months. Hope it lasts unlike all the other soccer clubs that seem to come and go with the tide. Sydney sport's fans are unloyal, hopefully the Giants do get all the expats from the southern states. At least they will stick it out.
Chairman Kaga
Guest
If the Suns are to go by, in about 12 months barring injuries they will hit their straps. Finals maybe 2 or 3 seasons after that. With the massive interest they seem to have generated if the hostility is anything to go, it'll be chock-a-block at Giants games in a few years.
Stavros
Guest
You are the one in denial. You know they will eventually be successful and it scares the hell out of you. The AFL don't need to fudge crowd figures. Demetriou knows it going to be a hard slog, so if there was only 1000 there then the AFL would say. Amazing how many people on 'The Roar' all of a sudden live in West Sydney.
Jimbo
Guest
I dont think the AFL or those in charge of the club are after a mid ranked so so team. They probaby feel (and objectively I think they are right) that only a very good GWS is going to push through the novelty/expat barrier and gain consistent large scale support and attendances. A competitive but not dominant side will probably still only be pulling numbers not much better than this. So it looks like they have been told, get me to that and basically I dont care what the first 4 years look like you get Mulligans until you hit the jackpot. In those circumstances, what they are doing makes more sense. And in reality, with the AFL determined to use these seasons as a loss leader to gain market share long term, there are no cconsequences for failure, in fact the opposite. Whatever fiscal deficit they run is picked up by HQ, and they get more high draft picks. Why wouldnt you do what they are doing? If the choice is between picking up more also rans or getting games into potential 100+ game youngsters...
Allan
Guest
You obviously didn't see how Parramatta and Blacktown council painted themselves red and black for the Wanderers. Sure the GWS Giants can only get better, it's scary to think they could actually get any worse, but by that time the Wanderers will be so far in front the GWS won't have a chance. There's a sign out the front of BISP put up by the Wanderers 'we are Western Sydney'. That's right, not Inner West Sydney, not Canberra, not Greater Western Sydney.
Nick from Sydney
Guest
Stavro, You are im denial champ. I live in West Sydney and have not met ONE GWS supporter or seen a GWS shirt ever on the street. Complete opposite when compared to the Wanderers. No one cares about AFL out here champ. And people are laughing hysterically at these 6k crowd figure claims. The ground is empty and you can hear a pin drop.
Allan
Guest
Free tickets, WCE away fans, most of the GWS membership base are from Canberra or expat Victorians. You can cut that 6000 into 1/3 if you want a true indication of how many people 'from Western Sydney' actually watch AFL now. AFL didn't work in Western Sydney, that must hurt if its the code you love but that's the reality, Western Sydney doesn't want it.