Team ACT?

[Sometimes]

My take on the "Canberra connection":

TEAM ACT?

Not a great move when they've billed themselves as a team for the Western Sydney community...

[unconfuseme]

Expect no more from a rudderless ship! ... they will go anywhere they think they can get some support without effort. I see that they are promising a "GWS Academy in Canberra", but they STILL have no academy structure in place in Sydney (promised for November 2010 - oh that's a shame). Yet, they continue to restrain kids from screening with the Swans ... which used to be ILLEGAL in a democracy.

If it happens, the big reveal (which was also promised for July this year) should be underwhelming ... I have it on good authority that they will be the Western Sydney Sycophants ... black with a yellow streak down the back ... so if they can't get crowds at Homebush or Manuka, we might see them playing out of Punt Road, hoping to fool the locals down there!

[Mug Punter]

Expect no more from a rudderless ship! ... they will go anywhere they think they can get some support without effort. I see that they are promising a "GWS Academy in Canberra", but they STILL have no academy structure in place in Sydney (promised for November 2010 - oh that's a shame). Yet, they continue to restrain kids from screening with the Swans ... which used to be ILLEGAL in a democracy.

If it happens, the big reveal (which was also promised for July this year) should be underwhelming ... I have it on good authority that they will be the Western Sydney Sycophants ... black with a yellow streak down the back ... so if they can't get crowds at Homebush or Manuka, we might see them playing out of Punt Road, hoping to fool the locals down there!

Could not agree more. These blokes are going to be a joke.

What gets me cross is that they'll play teh Swans and probably Collingwood at ANZ so Mr Taxpayer (all of us) are funding this TV team's new stadium that will get use 5 or 6 times a season. A total and utter disgrace.

These clowns will be entering the pre-season of their first AFL season this time next year. It's hard to see on any level how they will be successful.....

[goswannie14]

Who cares, they are just another club.

[laughingnome]

Who cares, they are just another club.

That's being quite generous isn't it? Club implies organisation and GWS is a tip after the ibis get through it.

GWS Ibis. Yes, they stink that bad.

[Tom Wills]

Why the hate of GWS? As AFL people in this pagan land of League and Soccer shouldn't we welcome another team. It will only add to the interest of AFL in Sydney, no matter how poorly they perform..... and don't come back with the AFL should support grass roots, they do. I heard once that there are more AFL development officers in NSW than Basketball has in the entire Country.

[laughingnome]

Why the hate of GWS? As AFL people in this pagan land of League and Soccer shouldn't we welcome another team. It will only add to the interest of AFL in Sydney, no matter how poorly they perform.

Logically, yes. But they are also another football team, and ipso facto not my friend.

Don't get me wrong, if I see some random person wearing GWS kit I'll be happy (not as happy as if it was Swannies kit), because it's game development and such, but friendliness stops at the gate. I hope they don't fail (and some of the decisions they are making seem ludicrous, such as this one), but there's only one team I want to succeed each year and every year, and they wear the Red and White.

[Pickup]

I don?t understand it either Tom. Small minded little picture stuff.
The sooner we get behind GWS, buy up a membership (As I will be and quite a few others I know) and help them succeed the sooner League can die the fast painful death it deserves.
At the risk of a back lash, I have found the majority of haters are originally Mexican's that still think the games theirs and how dare there be a footy team outside the big V.
Get over it,



Disclaimer
The views voiced above are based on 50% Fact, 30% innuendo and 20% niggle.
If the above resembles anyone in particular then my point is proven, otherwise
Please ignore.

Why the hate of GWS? As AFL people in this pagan land of League and Soccer shouldn't we welcome another team. It will only add to the interest of AFL in Sydney, no matter how poorly they perform..... and don't come back with the AFL should support grass roots, they do. I heard once that there are more AFL development officers in NSW than Basketball has in the entire Country.

Why the hate of GWS? As AFL people in this pagan land of League and Soccer shouldn't we welcome another team. It will only add to the interest of AFL in Sydney, no matter how poorly they perform..... and don't come back with the AFL should support grass roots, they do. I heard once that there are more AFL development officers in NSW than Basketball has in the entire Country.

[Mug Punter]

Why the hate of GWS? As AFL people in this pagan land of League and Soccer shouldn't we welcome another team. It will only add to the interest of AFL in Sydney, no matter how poorly they perform..... and don't come back with the AFL should support grass roots, they do. I heard once that there are more AFL development officers in NSW than Basketball has in the entire Country.

Because they are ill-conceived and poorly planned. More importantly they pose a direct threat to unravelling all the good work the Swans have done over the years.

We've slaved our guts up here fighting the good fight by ourselves with little or no assistance from the AFL - christ we couldn't even get a concession for the best junior in NSW.

There's been no grassroots movement for a second team (unlike the Gold Coast), they have bled our state coffers dry with a new stadium that will get used 6 times a year and have no-one in it. There is no evidence whatsoever that Sydney can support a second team, it's pie in the sky stuff. What AFL needs most of all in Sydney is creduibility and GWS has absolutely none at all.

They get it wrong and it will set the sport back 30 years in this town.....

[cartman48]

Hate the swans!!!!
Signed up 2 memberships yesterday with 592 other people......
GWS may take a long time to succeed but its the largest growing area in Australia so you can bet the AFL will stick at it.....

A successful GWS can only mean more money and more players for all the teams in Western Sydney which should be a good thing..... right?????

Have a look at Penrith's 18's in 2010 - that is the expansion of the code in the west over the past 10 years coming through......

It will just get bigger until its GIANT.....

[Mug Punter]

Hate the swans!!!!
Signed up 2 memberships yesterday with 592 other people......
GWS may take a long time to succeed but its the largest growing area in Australia so you can bet the AFL will stick at it.....

A successful GWS can only mean more money and more players for all the teams in Western Sydney which should be a good thing..... right?????

Have a look at Penrith's 18's in 2010 - that is the expansion of the code in the west over the past 10 years coming through......

It will just get bigger until its GIANT.....

Yeah, right. The game has just gone gangbusters out there recently.... NOT. Yep, it's so strong they are taking one third of your games down to Canberra where NO-ONE will care about the GWS GIANTS (what a ridiculous name).

I'd say it is a GIANT waste of money (especially NSW taxpayers), a GIANT monument to the ego of Andrew Demetriou, a GIANT ego trip for that media whore Sheedy and his band of sychophants and, in time, a GIANT embarrassment for the AFL.

Having said that, I'm really going to enjoy the next few seasons and watching you jokers.

[Dunger]

Yeah, right. The game has just gone gangbusters out there recently.... NOT. Yep, it's so strong they are taking one third of your games down to Canberra where NO-ONE will care about the GWS GIANTS (what a ridiculous name).

I'd say it is a GIANT waste of money (especially NSW taxpayers), a GIANT monument to the ego of Andrew Demetriou, a GIANT ego trip for that media whore Sheedy and his band of sychophants and, in time, a GIANT embarrassment for the AFL.

Having said that, I'm really going to enjoy the next few seasons and watching you jokers.

Right on Cartman38. I also hate the Swans, [MOD Edit : Frog - Abusing another member] The Giants are Sydney's OWN team, not a team that was relocated because they couldn't win any games and were about to fold. The whole move to Sydney makes the GWS startup look like one of Da Vinci's inventions that's centuries ahead of it's time!

On the subject of the move from SM to S, the local game was moving along nicely before the Swans royally @@@@@@@ it and actually did set it back 30 years. SFL games had decent crowds! No more thanks to the Swannies.

Then there's the hypocritical whingeing that GWS are being thrown money hand over fist with no leadership! Yeah the Swans don't get any concessions for being an interstate team. They didn't knock back Wayne Carey or James Hird for nobodies and they've always had huge crowds.

Laugh at the Giants at your peril but I can already smell the blood of a South Melbourne club.

[laughingnome]

SFL games had decent crowds! No more thanks to the Swannies.

Are you saying that you would prefer it Adelaide never joined the AFL and 'ruined' the SANFL? Crowds fell from mean 15,000 to 3000. What about West Coast/Fremantle where crowds in the WAFL plunged 80%? People want the best competition available. At one time it was the state league, now it's the national league. So fricken what.

I don't think anyone here is going to deny that Edelsten et al cocked it up with Sydney big time, but to compare 1970/80's VFL to 2010 AFL is apples with oranges. In the 1970's it was the haves and the have nots, and South was in the latter (along with Fitzroy, Footscray, St Kilda, Melbourne). The Salary Cap and Draft didn't even start to equalise the playing field until the 1990's, and if you weren't living in Victoria at the time you've not seen the ads running pleading for donations to keep the clubs afloat. South moved to Sydney and nearly died regardless, but came through and history says came through stronger. Nowadays the AFL doesn't bat an eyelid before giving money to clubs to prop them up. What has GWS been through? A corporate think-tank? The AFL's hoops? I'm sure that was really tough for you. Go get some history and purpose to your club before you start bashing the legacy of others.

[Frog]

Laugh at the Giants at your peril but I can already smell the blood of a South Melbourne club.

Stale smell then - That blood is over 30 years old ... Would have dried to powder by now.

[unconfuseme]

Love the concept of a 2nd Sydney team ... but when there are incompetents appointed to deliver it, the damage can be devastating ... and that's exactly what the GWS Jaffas are doing as we speak!