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With yesterday’s news Andrew Demetriou will be stepping down from his post as CEO of the AFL, thoughts immediately turned to what his legacy will be.
While many have declared the Essendon drug saga as the incident from which his reputation will never completely recover, there can be no doubt the long-term position of the game in New South Wales, and particularly Greater Western Sydney, is what he will be judged upon a decade or more from now.
If successful, Demetriou will be hailed a bold and innovative visionary, fearless in implementing his minority view.
Failure will see him labelled an arrogant and foolhardy buffoon, drunk on his own power and unable to see beyond his own hubris.
No AFL favour has been spared to establish the Giants as a football stronghold for the western Sydney region, an enormous task that became harder still with the stunning success of the A-League Wanderers storming their way to the top of the ladder and all the way to a grand final in their inaugural 2012/13 season.
The Wanderers’ fans established themselves as one of the most fervent supporter bases from any code and were one of the stories of the Australian sporting year, their passion stemming from an organic base that organisers of the Big Bash League, for instance, couldn’t trust that fans would provide, and instead had to crassly manufacture.
All the while, GWS were embarrassing themselves and the game, making a mockery of the AFL as a ‘competition’ whenever they crossed the white line.
While the Wanderers played their matches in front of a heaving, thriving, singing and chanting stadium, the Giants were playing in front of a couple of pie-boys and a TV audience consisting largely of me and whoever was blogging the game for The Roar.
No-one could confidently predict what GWS will look like as a football team three, five or ten years from now, and Nostradamus himself wouldn’t dare pontificate about the sort of membership base or following they’ll have at the end of that period, or hazard a guess at the money spent on them in the meantime.
But what will the Giants look like this year? Can they lift themselves from the bottom of the ladder?
More importantly, can they stand up for themselves on a weekly basis on the field, and not just be an English batsman to the rest of the competition’s Mitch Johnson?
GWS will forever be compared to and rated against the Gold Coast Suns. It’s as inevitable as Roger Federer versus Rafael Nadal or Coke versus Pepsi.
So far, the traffic has been extremely one-way.
After two completed seasons, Gold Coast had won six games and had a combined percentage of 58.4%. GWS have won three and have a percentage of 48.7%.
The Suns averaged one goal more a game, and conceded two goals fewer over those initial 44 matches.
While Gold Coast have had a certain Gary Ablett leading their team and producing some of the best individual football ever played, the Giants, and this is just a gut feel, have benefitted more from sides resting players or taking it easy against them.
The Suns’ third season was the first time they looked like a legitimate football team from the outset, and were no longer to be judged as just an expansion side. Unfortunately, the Giants will still be looked upon that way until they can prove otherwise.
Gold Coast won eight matches last year, and finished 14th, with a very respectable percentage of 91.73%. GWS simply won’t be achieving that, or anything close to it.
The procuring of Heath Shaw, Shane Mumford and Josh Hunt will stiffen them up, and the added bonus of extracting young Jed Lamb from the Sydney Swans was a nice touch as well. Even if they had to drastically overpay to get the first two, using money which had been reserved for Lance Franklin, it was a stand that needed to be taken to gain legitimacy.
Players like Rhys Palmer, Stephen Gilham and Dylan Addison have gone from fringe players at their original clubs to fringe players at the Giants, but when guys like this aren’t getting a regular game, it at least means the best 22 is getting stronger, and there are some ready-made AFL footballers to call on for depth.
Callan Ward and Jeremy Cameron are genuine stars already, and hopefully the much-vaunted forward triumvirate of Cameron, Jonathon Patton and Tom Boyd gel in the way people hope and expect.
The best friend of GWS this year may well be St Kilda. There always seems to be a basket-case, and this year it will likely be the hapless Saints.
It’s hard to see Melbourne losing to St Kilda in Round 1, with the former showing marked improvement in the NAB Challenge under Paul Roos, and the latter showing few signs they’re in for anything but a long year.
The Giants and Saints will clash in Round 2 in what will be an early indicator of which club has the inside running for the wooden spoon. It’s a horrible position to be in for a team that played in a grand final just four seasons ago.
GWS only play one of last year’s top eight from Rounds 2 to 9, so they will get their chance to avoid being blown away.
Andrew Demetriou will be taking his victory lap during 2014, having overseen the game becoming if not the number one sport in the country, then certainly the dominant football code.
He’ll be keeping more than one eye on the progress of the Giants this season, and hoping against hope they can prove their detractors wrong and finally have some meaningful impact on the AFL.
If not, he’ll be leaving with his pet project still a black mark on the game.