GWS and it's impact on your club - Please Answer

[Norris Lurker]

Tend to disagree about getting the to the SCG.. and I have done it over the years from 1982. In the early days, my parents use to drive to the ground and park nearby, there are loads of parking if your willing to walk a little bit (better than sitting in the car park).

I have also done the train, and walked up from central, fair few do that and stop off for a beer on the way, quite social. Afterwards you have the luxury of the entertainment quarter for a drink and food or the city.

As for Spotless Stadium, have yet to do that, but when the Swans use to play out at Sydney Olympic park it just didn't have the same atmosphere and less options afterwards.

Spotless doesn't have the same options, the only pub near the station is the Brewery. But the members bar at Spotless is good - if I wasn't doing what I do on game day, I'd probably watch games from there quite often.
Kick to kick on the ground after the game, and the post-matches they're running at Tom Wills works well on the entertainment experience side - but without that, there's not a lot out at Olympic Park.
I've always found Spotless a lot easier to get to than the SCG. But then again, I don't have to change at Central, only at Lidcombe. And my dodgy ankle doesn't enjoy the walk up Foveaux St or traversing the Spiral Bridge to Nowhere as much these days.

However, these days don't get to see any matches, volunteering for a local AFL team takes up too much time and I'm lucky enough that my wife (who had no knowledge of the game before me) gives up her time to work in the canteen.

And it's a lot to do both. One of my pet peeves is the AFL keeps scheduling Giants & Swans home games for Saturday afternoon - undermines the grassroots comp up here no end. But that's a whole other story.

[unconfuseme]

Never had an issue catching the Events Bus to and from Homebush for a Swans game - brilliant!

[cos789]

you work for either ANZ stadium or state rail ...

No. Just don't whingers.

[Pekay]

One of my pet peeves is the AFL keeps scheduling Giants & Swans home games for Saturday afternoon - undermines the grassroots comp up here no end. But that's a whole other story.

Spot on Mick. Although Sundays are now junior footy days. I'm sure they could work it out though, and potentially double the GWS crowds.

[cartman48]

GWS Junior Club Night at Blacktown seemed to be a roaring success the other night (I didn't attend but I'm also not involved with a Western Suburbs club).

[Tim Freedman]

GWS are really doing a great job in the west they have taken all the best 16.17 y olds (10-15)from the academy and are making them with Kellyville. They have enough players now for 2 full teams and both are called east coast eagles? Thought it would have been a good opportunity to be called Giants? Great initiative pitty about all the other junior clubs in the West.

Ah, pretty certain the Giants aren't advising any kids to come and play at Kellyville. In fact, if someone asked me I would have thought it was the opposite based on case history.

Just as an FYI for you Saviour, the two Eagles junior teams are a result of joint ventures between Kellyville & Baulkham Hills. They combined to strengthen their lists to make sure they could get full teams. The decision to do so helped keep kids at both clubs rather than the kids be lost to the sport. The presidents decided on naming them the Eagles to reflect both of their involvement with ECE. And on the back of that decision it just so happens that an ECE prems player coaches one of the sides.

[cos789]

Spot on Mick. Although Sundays are now junior footy days. I'm sure they could work it out though, and potentially double the GWS crowds.

Can we say who is attending ? Is it WS people ?
When the Fremantle Dockers came along they attracted a completely different type of crowd to the WCE
yet they both play at exactly the same stadium.

[Tom Wills]

Can we close off this thread..... I am sick of reading about GWS. It started saying they did nothing and now seems to have moved on to they do lots. Either way there must be something more interesting for us to argue about.

[cos789]

I hope GWS do well. It's good for the Swans, good for Sydney, good for football and good for AFL.
But most of all I hope GWS do well because it will P.O. a lot of people.

[Mug Punter]

I went to Spotless last weekend and it was a surreal experience.

It's a pretty standard formula now, 3,000 - 4,000 GWS "fans", 2,000 - 3,000 away fans and a the balance being happy clappers.

A totally artificial and contrived match day experience, they'll be stuck at this level for 20 years +, heaven help us all if they go to the big show this year and win it in front of 1,000 "fans" who barely understand the rules....

AN embarrassment to the game

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I hope GWS do well. It's good for the Swans, good for Sydney, good for football and good for AFL.
But most of all I hope GWS do well because it will P.O. a lot of people.

And I pay that post big time LOL

[Rowdy#8]

I went to Spotless last weekend and it was a surreal experience.

It's a pretty standard formula now, 3,000 - 4,000 GWS "fans", 2,000 - 3,000 away fans and a the balance being happy clappers.

A totally artificial and contrived match day experience, they'll be stuck at this level for 20 years +, heaven help us all if they go to the big show this year and win it in front of 1,000 "fans" who barely understand the rules....

AN embarrassment to the game

I understand that this is a swans forum, so there's always going to be one eyed swans views, but Mug, your lack of appreciation for the swans history is the embarrassment here.

Anyone who has been on the swans wagon for the long haul would know how hard it is to establish a presence in the Sydney market. As another poster has already pointed out, the swans average crowds in the early 90s were lower than what the Giants are currently pulling. I remember going to a swans-saints game in the 90s with 3 mates (all of us in rugby league jerseys) and playing kick to kick across 3 empty bays.

But look at the swans now - it took a long time but now a huge following and plenty of on field success to show for their persistence. In time, GWS will grow and prosper like the swans have, and it can be nothing but good for footy in NSW.

[Triple B]

I understand that this is a swans forum, so there's always going to be one eyed swans views, but Mug, your lack of appreciation for the swans history is the embarrassment here.

Anyone who has been on the swans wagon for the long haul would know how hard it is to establish a presence in the Sydney market. As another poster has already pointed out, the swans average crowds in the early 90s were lower than what the Giants are currently pulling. I remember going to a swans-saints game in the 90s with 3 mates (all of us in rugby league jerseys) and playing kick to kick across 3 empty bays.

But look at the swans now - it took a long time but now a huge following and plenty of on field success to show for their persistence. In time, GWS will grow and prosper like the swans have, and it can be nothing but good for footy in NSW.

Good call on all points...

[unconfuseme]

I could be mistaken, but i thought we had been playing AFL in Sydney for 35 years now, that GWS were shooting for a record of consecutive wins, had their list artificially pumped up with superstars, are sitting a spot off the top of the ladder, and being touted as Grand Final contenders ... and they get 6,000 people at a game? ... what position were the Swans floundering in when they were struggling to get crowds in the mid 90's??? Apples and "Oranges".

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Can we close off this thread..... I am sick of reading about GWS. It started saying they did nothing and now seems to have moved on to they do lots. Either way there must be something more interesting for us to argue about.

[cos789]

had their list artificially pumped up with superstars,

So basically you're criticising the AFL for learning from their mistakes.
The AFL gave the GWS a list with the idea of GWS trading it's way to become a competitive team.
Clubs didn't trade so understandably it has taken GWS this long to be competitve.
Criticism should be directed at those clubs that didn't foresee this event.

I am dissappointed but not jealous that the Swans were not supported as well as the new expansion teams.
Having two AFL teams in a city is good for the regular weekly focus on football.
It's mutually beneficial in building derbies as well as support for the game in general.

[unconfuseme]

No criticism, just a statement of fact - the Swans did not have that benefit at the time of their struggle, so any comparison is spurious.

As for the benefit of a second team, no question it is a good thing, but it would be unhealthy and ingenuous for any self respecting Swans fan to give the GWS Jaffa's any kind of a leg up ...