Greater Western Sydney coach Kevin Sheedy wants his players to work harder and closer with schools to attract more fans after yet another low crowd at Showground Stadium.
GWS’s crowd woes continued on Saturday when a mere 6,324 turned up to watch their 100-point loss to West Coast.
It was the second-lowest GWS home crowd on record, behind the 5,830 on hand for Adelaide’s 135-point thumping of the Giants at the Sydney Olympic Park venue 13 days ago.
“We’ve got to do a lot of work in schools,” Sheedy said.
“Every player and every coach will be allotted four schools in the west.
“I’ll know my schools and I’ll be attending them and letting them know about AFL.
“So you’d have 50 people at four schools, that’s 200 schools … I think that’s the best way to look at developing this club, through youth.”
While persistent rain hammered Sydney in the lead-up to the game, it cleared and Saturday’s game was played in ideal conditions.
The Giants are still searching for their ideal timeslot, but Saturday afternoon is not a great fit given it clashes with the vast majority of local Australian rules fixtures.
“One of the awkward difficulties is the Sydney footy league play today,” Sheedy said.
“I mean if they weren’t playing today, they might have possibly been here at the Giants game.
“So we need to look at different ways to get crowds here, maybe we need to look at readjusting the AFL draw.
“…The two crowds (at Showground Stadium) that we’ve got are Adelaide, and Adelaide never leave home.
“And Western Australia is probably a suburb of Cape Town. So it’s very hard to get a lot of West Australians here from Cape Town.”
“…When this team grows, people will start coming more and more. Before long you’ll have 10, 12 or 15 thousand.”
Australian Rules
Guest
Consider this hypothetical sports team: - invented by the governing body from scratch; - plonked in a large city as the second team; - representing a vague geographical area; - are less than 3 years old; - have limited, if any, success; - attract small crowds bordering on embarrassing: - genuine concerns for their long term viability. They are, the Mebourne Heart. My point is...There's plenty of room for the Heart, the Giants, the Perth NRL team etc. But the insecure vitriol that is reserved only for the Giants is just small-town nonsense and shows a pointless double-standard.
clipper
Guest
Maybe the fall out from the success of the Wanderers is that there have been fewer people going to AFL and NRL matches out west. It is true that the seasons only cross over for a few weeks, but many people only have so much in the 'entertainment budget. This would explain 7k crowd for the tigers, Parramatta struggling to get 10k and the Giants getting 6k.
Nick from Sydney
Guest
That's what we football fans said about the Mariners in Gosford. Sometimes you gotta just accept what your peak level of interest may be. Stavros - for now you can call me a fireman with a high pressure hose
ciudadmarron
Guest
So... 3 years in and it's only now time to "hit the schools"? Regardless of the accuracy of sheedy's comment, is it any wonder the people of western Sydney aren't prepared to give the team a go, when they insist on creating the perception that they actually aren't going to give western Sydney itself anything other than half-arsed uninformed tokenism?
zach
Guest
Such an easy claim to make - the thing is the stadium isn't managed by GWS, it's managed by the Royal Agricultural Society who handle the gate. You'd never make this sort of claim about a Melbourne Heart game when they draw their usual 5000, even though on TV it looks like there is literally no one there at AAMI park.
marco
Guest
Give This new team a break . It takes time for a club to grow no matter where they are. I support 2 teams south Sydney and the swans but I don't mind GWS. Its good for Sydney to have a second AFL team. They will eventually have a few wins and get more support. Some teams are easybeats for years until they have any success.
Chairman Kaga
Guest
So you are one of those salespeople who bug people to buy insurance. Suppose someone has to do it How do you feel after a day of that? Real life skills your building there. What do you tell the hot chick in the bar you do? I'd rather sweep the streets.
AFL: Making the BIG game BIGGER
Guest
So if you went to the match and did the count, what did you think of Skoda Stadium? Apparently it has the largest video matrix board in Australia. Is it easy to get to the ground? As soon as the Giants get better I'll be coming up.
Gus OUT Sheedy IN
Guest
Chairman, you hit the nail on the head. The hysteria on here from the anti-AFL folks is very encouraging I must say.
hutch
Guest
That's if you really believe there were 6000 there. If that stadium was 1/4 full, ill buy a membership. 2500 at best, and I'm being generous!
zach
Guest
Gee the haters are out in force again. While 6000 would be a bad crowd in Melbourne Adelaide or Perth, in Western Sydney it is only slightly lower than the local NRL clubs have drawn recently, and for all their hype, the Western Sydney Wanderers average crowd was only about 12000 last season. Last year GWS drew 11,000 against Essendon at Skoda which was not a bad crowd all things considered, and bears out what Sheedy was saying about distance the opposition has to travel. And the continual slagging of Sheedy by the haters from other codes can never dent his record as one of the greatest and most inclusive figures in Australia's sporting history - the dreamtime round being inspired by his work.
Reason
Guest
So this 6234 crowd figure at Skoda. Presumably this is the cumulative total for the year? If so that's a pretty good result considering.
Reason
Guest
They don't, and they aren't :)
Ahmed
Guest
I'm not sure. But you can see the crowds started iincreasing when they started winning. Before that they had similar crowds to the Giants.
Allan
Guest
Nice response, I'm sure there's a village out there somewhere currently missing you.
Allan
Guest
Oh ok, so how many free tickets did the Wanderers have to give away ?
Allan
Guest
'You guys' ? I was born here, my family has been here for 200 years, I'm whiter than Kevin Sheedy. Have a look at the makeup of the crowds at A League and NRL matches and try find another reason as why AFL didn't work in Western Sydney.
Ahmed
Guest
He is garnering media in an area where the media are predjudice and insular towards football.
Ahmed
Guest
When a new biscuit range comes out you often see free samples given away in magazines and stores etc. Those who like it will change their purchasing habits to include them. If it is their favorite they will also tell their friends. (Id like to plug the new Mars Bar honey ... New fav) Same with sport. People aren't likely to want to pay for something they aren't sure about. But a free ticket will them an experience of it. If they like it and buy membership they will let their friends know.
me, I like football
Guest
That'll learn all of dem vermins a lessin in how we not gonna tolerate y'all and ya wacky ways. Another redneck signin' out y'all. Derpy derp derp.