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Greater Western Sydney. About as appealing as an Ed Cowan at bat. Disappointing to the point of being irrelevant.
A folly reliant on handouts just to eke out a contrived and burdensome existence.
What ‘The Who’ meant by teenage wasteland.
And then there are the Giants.
At least they’ve made a couple of good decisions. Abandoning the idea of Israel Folau as the promised land for salary cap room was one. Drafting Jeremy Cameron was the other.
Jeremy Cameron has the initials of a saviour and a left foot sweeter than a Collingwood grand final loss. He is already the most effective forward in the competition, sublimely skilled and the reason why a trip to watch the Giants is worth it.
That and the Skoda hot-dogs. They are really quite good. And there are no queues.
Cameron’s first year was highlighted with the club’s leading goalkicker award, the AFLPA’s best first year player and being only an indiscretion away from being named the Rising Star of the Year.
His second year has been stronger still – a rarity among the GWS list.
In his sixteen games this year Cameron has kicked 50 goals and has been a feature in the Coleman medal chase since the start of the season.
It’s a particularly impressive effort given he suffers from the dual disadvantage of playing for the Giants and not being able to play against them.
Sport scientists refer to it as the Andy Flower syndrome. Cameron’s case is acute.
Cameron has kicked a higher percentage of a team’s score this year than any other player. He goes at about 26% of the GWS total output. Cloke contributes 20% of Collingwood’s score.
Riewoldt and Kennedy about the same for Richmond and West Coast. Roughead is at 17% for Hawthorn and Hawkins at 14% for Geelong.
It’s an impressive stat. But as Aristitotle said one swallow doesn’t make a summer. Nor an effective North Melbourne midfield.
But here’s the Tim from Demtel moment. Wait. There’s more.
Cameron has 69 scoring shots for the season to date taken from GWS’ total of 677 inside 50s. So he alone converts just over 10% of his team’s total forward forays.
He shades Cloke at 9.6%. Riewoldt comes in third, Kennedy fourth, followed by Franklin and Roughead. Hawkins rounds it out at about 5% of scoring shots from Geelong’s inside 50s.
And at 50.19 Cameron’s accuracy in front of goal is on par with any other key forward in the game.
So there it is. Output, opportunity and efficiency. Jeremy Cameron a triple threat not seen in football since Lockett, Dunstall and Brereton all pulled on the Big V back in 1989 leaving Danny Hughes contemplating his choice of profession.
Speaking of the late eighties and a fast approaching cumbersome segue, I journeyed to Moorabbin in 1987 to see the Saints host the Bombers. The Saints weren’t having a great season. In fact they hadn’t for some time.
But what St Kilda did have was Tony Lockett. And dedicated hordes who would shuffle from one end of the ground to the other every quarter time break just to get as close as they could to watch him play.
Lockett kicked nine in a losing side. St Kilda fans saw hope in defeat. And everyone saw a great footballer doing what he does best.
This week GWS host Melbourne on a Saturday afternoon at Skoda Stadium. And even though the Giants are a fair chance of winning, the real attraction for the locals should be the opportunity to go and watch Jeremy Cameron.
To appreciate an overwhelmingly talented player doing his thing. To see the best young forward in the game.
And this how it should be promoted. A sea of smiling Cameron masks flooding the outer.
A free sew-the-number-eighteen service on the back of your duffle coat at every entrance. Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy” blaring over the loudspeaker every time he touches it. Sure the lyrics are a bit dire but you get the drift.
And if after all that they still don’t come – well perhaps Greater Western Sydney don’t deserve a player like Jeremy Cameron.
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