The game was on 2hr delay on kayo
The game was on 2hr delay on kayo
Hang on, how are NWSW or their fan base ‘legit’? They were an FFA-commissioned and announced team as part of their expansion strategy, with an excellent marketing strategy (i.e. mass wank) that played into fans’ desire for authenticity in the era of franchises that largely make up the league, invoking a sense of history with tenuous links to 19th century historical events, and giving them a wee taste of community and ownership by holding polls on club’s early direction.
A large chunk of their fans jumped ship from us at a time when we were largely underachievers playing second fiddle to Victory, hoping for better run of luck. Another chunk of their fans jumped ship AFTER it became apparent they were destined for more success, including some who changed allegiances after they won the ACL. Can you imagine a capo who used to be a fan of their rival club, anywhere else in the world? It would be unimaginable in legit football nations like Argentina, Croatia, Poland or Serbia whose matchday atmosphere they constantly try to rip off by ripping off flares.
Their fan leadership are knuckleheads with a deep seated inferiority complex and delusions of persecution as evidenced by their ridiculous official ‘statements’, racist fuckwits using ‘Jewish’ as an insult in labelling us a Jewish club whilst actually being owned by a successful businessman of Jewish heritage, who don’t think twice before making tifos depicting a sex act in full view of fans including families and children.
Whilst always trying to be the bigger club than us their recruitment policy is essentially to sign anyone and everyone who’s been within a 5km radius of Moore Park, to the point I’m actually surprised they haven’t signed the sausage on a roll guy across the road from Captain Cook. Their two biggest achievements which were stopping our undefeated run in 2016/17 and winning the ACL were results of refereeing howlers.
They were constantly pontificating about their ‘unwavering support’, but 3 lean years after making a GF in 2016 and their numbers have halved, and I’m not sure even their new stadium will save them.
So no, I’m not sold at all that there is anything ‘legit’ about the wank stain on our city called NWSW. They’d sooner loose their dodgy compo benefits than acknowledge us as legit so I’m not sure why some are so generous here.
10/10. Great rant.
That’s a solid as fuck rant.
Their fan base remains worthy of derision as every one of them fits into one of three categories:
They’re a few years away from having genuine fans who grew up with WSW as their local team. But even falling into those categories, there was still far more demand for a HAL team in football’s heartland than there ever was for a VFL franchise.
“FFA funded” (cough, $4M stolen from grassroots grant) is a drop in the ocean compared to what the VFL have ploughed into manufacturing GWS, stacking the team to make them competitive, making it free to play, sending players out to every fucking school to brainwash the kids etc. A decade on hardly anyone gives a fuck, and half of those that do are apparently from Manuka (I’m sure in the few mins of that massacre I saw they said there were as many buses from Canberra as there were from Sydney to the MCG).
While I agree with the general sentiment of derision, you;re not allowing much leway here. What you’re saying is fuck them for not supporting the league, but also fuck them for supporting the league and changing to another team. Following that logic, they should have no supporters
I had to read this a second time - at first I thought you were saying that you were surprised that they hadn’t tried to sign Alfie.
Edit: Really enjoyed your rant by the way.
Not seeing the issue here.
Did GWS manage to get any current first graders out of local AFL? I remember that being a sticking point a few years back, but I’d imagine that given each team has around 100 players on field through any match, they must have found someone who can run hard in tight athletic wear for 2 hours somewhere in western Sydney.
https://www.gwsgiants.com.au/football/academy/academy-graduates
That’s their list of Academy graduates. Can’t see anyone on that list that has played first grade and would be considered from Western Sydney, but that said, I remember it took some time for the Swans to get any from “Sydney” too. I know a couple of the players that retired at the end of this season. McVeigh and Jack both played with Pennant Hills. McVeigh played his first senior game in 2003, so 21 years after South Melbourne relocated. Even now the Swans probably only had half a dozen players on their list this year that you’d consider Sydney raised.
So there have been more western Sydney locals playing for varied and far-flung clubs such as Liverpool, Gençlerbirliği, Leeds, Manchester United, Walsall, Aarau, Bruges, Aberdeen, Shimizu, Bunyudkor and NY red Bulls (to pick a bunch of very random examples off the top of my head) than for a club put right there to try and win hearts and minds (along with providing Underpants Gnomes-style TV revenue). I find that an amazing indifference from the local community to the sport, when you factor in expats from the southern states who are properly crazy about AFL.
That’s probably the biggest difference in terms of plastic-ness of the GWS. WSW are a plastic club (as are all in a franchise model such as the A-League) playing a sport which exists locally with local playing and supporting presence. GWS are an entirely alien presence. Both are karnts though.
The number of NSW raised players in the AFL is growing, but they seem to be really coming from Albury and Wagga. The ACT seems to be producing a few too. The Swans academy isn’t just based in Sydney though, they established bases in a few places throughout the state.
I think you’ll see the numbers and the talent continue to grow. It’ll never be a dominant sport in NSW from a player numbers or hearts and minds perspective, but it’ll have its niche. I guess like the Storm in the NRL. I can’t imagine they’ve got a tonne of juniors running around in their squad or in the other squads. They might end up with a few down the line, but the majority will come from NSW and QLD.
Good to see some solid AFL hate back into this thread. Love it & never lose sight of the fact that they are THE main enemy of football.
And it’s a silly sport that exposes on to Bruce MacKaveney.
What a bunch of whingers:
Paywalled
Haha, FFS. Can’t read the article, but the headline says it all.
If you haven’t seen this yet. I love it when media have an agenda and it backfires.
Gold