Why the Giant-sized hate for GWS?

I've always thought they could have been called NSW / ACT Giants. Thereby representing every area in NSW apart from Sydney Swans who really represent Sydney Hills district, North Shore, Eastern Suburbs and South of Sydney. Thereby Western Sydney, South Coast, North Coast and Canberra could be represented. The NSW / ACT Rams play in the U18 comp and this could be the senior team of that. No easy way to implement....The early calls were Western Sydney but WSW have that mantle for themselves

Why the hate for GWS? If you compare what GWS got when they entered the AFL compared with what Fremantle got (indeed, Fremantle entering the AFL actually made other clubs stronger - Essendon got Matthew Lloyd and Scott Lucas, Geelong got Steven King) you'd be cheezed orf too!

Its also worth noting that the fact that Western Bulldogs have received more money from the AFL since GWS has come into the competition in 2012 than GWS. Source AFL annual reports. So much for the Western Bulldogs 'poor me' nonsense.

Thanks - GWS and Suns will pay for themselves many times over - the Melbourne clubs whinge at the concessions but there are plenty of ex GWS playing at other clubs incl Collingwood (Adams and Treloar) . There are no guarantees picking an 18 year old will turn out to be a good player. You don't want another Brisbane bears.

Yeah the raiders played in Queanbeyan and were only formed as a bulwark against the Swans moving to Sydney.

I don't personally know anyone that doesn't have respect for GWS, in fact most people marvel at how far they have come in just a year I would be scared now that GWS will be a powerhouse and good luck too them. However we are still savage on losing Callan Ward. I also agree we need two successful teams in Sydney for the sake of our great game. There are many kids in NSW that aren't suited to Rugby so we provide a great opportunity for the kids. Just look at Caleb Daniel. He may not be the tallest guy going around but boy is he big in stature. What other game gives all shapes and sizes a chance to play on the national stage. Go Dogs

The better question is why is the GF in Melbourne?

Play the GF in Sydney!

Play it in Sydney!

Storm get more exposure than the 11th most popular team in a town really should.

Storm get plenty of publicity in Melbourne.

WSW didn't win the premiership, they come in first after the rounds. Yet for all their wins, people in Melbourne are still indifferent about the Storm - bet they wish they could get all the publicity the hate for GWS gets them.

The AFL just read the demographics better, a population of 2.1 million and growing by another million. This is a start up team and should be applauded all the way, the real underdog in the sporting landscape. Go Giants!

AL Which AFL media outlet?? There is only one and it wasn't the AFL media site so you are making it up. The AFL should have followed the Canberra raiders/Melbourne Storm startup model where you load up with stars and win premierships and then get found out that they exceeded the salary cap by miles and then blame the Sydney head office NRL conspiracy that its their (Sydneys) fault. But by that time the team is established and RL people in general have short memories..

Republican You know it costs$20m to run an AFL club and the 3 areas you mention do not have the money to afford this. The NRL tried to expand into bizarre places and they failed - the next best AFL option is to play 3 games in these centres (1 each in AS and Darwin). The Canberra sporting landscape has the Raiders and Brumbies who are struggling and has seen the demise of the cricket Comets, basketball canons and Soccer Arrows? Its a town of 300K in league heartland - its allright to be bitter but you have to have commonsense as well...

The way the media keep talking up the GWS is sickening. The afl must be putting lots of money in their pockets. They talk up the GWS as though its something amazing, it nor it all afl money and plenty of support from ACT fans. Do they really thing we are buying into the hype. One afl media outlet even compared the gws to Lecster City EPL win last year. Good old afl spin they must not think much of their fans as they think they will swallow anything.

A close enough approximation of my thoughts. I should have been a straight up ticket holder of this club. I watched a little piece on them the other day on the 7:30 report - the CEO said something that encapsulates a lot of what is wrong with them. He laughed at the horror of having to have an office at Rooty Hill RSL like they were lucky to have escaped without infectious diseases. This mob have no interest in being a part of a community and pay lip service via the media at every opportunity while still failing to lure in the customers they need. They look at the population as a commodity, a market to exploit, and apparently with very little genuine desire to even understand it. Go the bulldogs - at least it's meant that their long-suffering fans will have the opportunity to have a very special memory as a result.

Don't be too intimidated, Dave. Republican means, "supplementation of GWS and GC..." not "supplementing". He also means "delusions of grandeur" not "illusions". Of course, if avarice is a self perpetuating culture, the AFL can't be held accountable. Avarice itself is to blame. If it is not self perpetuating but it is the AFL's culture of avarice, then the AFL is to blame.

Comparison between father son and Academies is pointless. The Sydney and particularly now the GWS academy is delivering talent every season, often multiple players. GWS will now likely get access to top 10 talent every year circumventing the purpose of the draft order. Father son would be lucky to deliver a top 10 draft pick once every 20 years and not even 1 player per team per year. The entire leagues combined father son benefit would not equal the NSW academies benefits as far as access to players and talent is concerned. It's a rort that will keep feeding top talent regardless of whether they win the premiership or not.

500 years ago was a comp named the MFL it consisted of two teams melbourne and melbourne but the bosses wanted to expand the game and hopefully bring new spectators to the sport. Thus they introduced a team from woop woop . The melb teams were not happy because they were scared it may affect some of the big games ie the melb v melb anzac day clash,or the melb v melb friday night special,or the melb v melb derby,What would happen if it wasn't melb v melb grand final? Luckily woop woop was not very successful in their first few seasons,They had only 6 supporters(mam ,papa, son, grand son and 2 dogs), The 2 melb teams complained that it was unfair because of the fixture one melb team got to play woop woop more than the other. However this soon changed as woop woop began winning and becoming a real threat. Woop woop now had 8 supporters coming to the game(mama, papa ,son and 2 mates the grand son had already started playing for the woops but another dog came along to spectate). 500 years later and woop woop has changed,first they changed their name to collingwoop and they now have more spectators than any club(they regularly get 25000 people and 25000 dogs to every game). But it wasn't smooth sailing for collingwoop because the bosses wanted to expand again. This time they went international adding the teams NZ shearers the CHINA tom cat meows and the IRISH potato mashers. OK in the first games the new teams weren't successful and their spectactators weren't strong. After ten years when the shearers beat the potato mashers for their first flag there was only 8 spectators (mama, papa, son, grandson and 4 sheep) 10 years later again 8 spectators(mama,papa,son and 5 sheep,the grandson has already started playing for the shearers). 500 years later the NZ shearers have enough spectators and sheep to rival collingwoop's spectators and dogs. But all teams not happy because don't like the new team FREO fisheman even though they never win and only have 2 guys carriying bags of fish as spectators