AFL Thread

[mick9619]

"We don't have the recruiting officer called the immigration department, recruiting fans for (successful A-League soccer club) Western Sydney Wanderers.

"We've got to start a whole new ballpark and go and find fans.''

 

Kevin Sheedy (GWS coach) on the wanderers

 

just wow

[102megan]

<playing devil's advocate here>

 

Cool, so we're blowing up over ONE sentence, in an 8 minute interview?

 

Watch the video: http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/gws-presser/video-e6frf33l-1226640627985?subcat=1225914646010 before you comment on that statement by Sheedy, yeah?? 

 

Yes, his comment was poorly worded.

 

But he does have a point.  It was a compliment to how big soccer & its fan base is, as opposed to how difficult it will be to grow AFL in Western Sydney. 

 

Soccer/ football is a world game.  Many of those who live in Western Sydney, have certain ethnicities, who to them - football is their life.

 

AFL on the other hand, does not have that. They have to try and find fans.

 

I will say though, that Kevin Sheedy has dug himself a bit of a hole here - and certainly not a good way to encourage those in the Western suburbs to jump on board the following of the Giants.

[marron]

He apparently said almost exactly the same thing on the back page 2 months ago. I wad amazed it wasn't picked up by anyone.... This is worse than eddies kebab comment in my book.... I hope this gets publicized as much. Boycott the giants people (preaching to the converted here )

[marron]

Megan, he has said it before. No matter his intention, it is a perpetuation of the myth of football unaustralian-ness and the implied devaluing of the worth of immigrants. He us supposed to be winning us over....

 

I will say though, that Kevin Sheedy has dug himself a bit of a hole here - and certainly not a good way to encourage those in the Western suburbs to jump on board the following of the Giants.

 

I might add, this in a week when the afl Is going apeshit over their one immigrant player.

[alexd]

He apparently said almost exactly the same thing on the back page 2 months ago. I wad amazed it wasn't picked up by anyone.... This is worse than eddies kebab comment in my book.... I hope this gets publicized as much. Boycott the giants people (preaching to the converted here )

+1 - Sorry Megan, I'm with him

(you may not have the numbers in this forum to have much sympathy for afl...)

[ManfredSchaefer]

<playing devil's advocate here>

 

Cool, so we're blowing up over ONE sentence, in an 8 minute interview?

 

Watch the video: http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/gws-presser/video-e6frf33l-1226640627985?subcat=1225914646010 before you comment on that statement by Sheedy, yeah?? 

 

Yes, his comment was poorly worded.

 

But he does have a point.  It was a compliment to how big soccer & its fan base is, as opposed to how difficult it will be to grow AFL in Western Sydney. 

 

Soccer/ football is a world game.  Many of those who live in Western Sydney, have certain ethnicities, who to them - football is their life.

 

AFL on the other hand, does not have that. They have to try and find fans.

 

I will say though, that Kevin Sheedy has dug himself a bit of a hole here - and certainly not a good way to encourage those in the Western suburbs to jump on board the following of the Giants.

 

It's great that you can play devil's advocate Megan, but it isn;t just one sentence...it's the underlying attitude behind the club and the management and Sheeds himself. They are not willing to put in the hard yards and actually be part of this community. They are continually presenting themselves as victims who deserve the western suburbs support and yet have had hundreds of millions pumped into their setup and operations. They've run through gimmicks and stunts mostly derived from the mouth of Sheeds or as mebodied in that hopeless clown Folau, then gone and robbed other squads of prime draft picks to populate their loser squad, The statements from that mouthy numbnuts are symptomatic of a mindset that is geared towards failure and envy, bad practice and irrelevance. Until they clear out their management and coaching staff and actually try and live up to all the misbegotten PR verbiage they have issued since their sorry entrance into the football world they will continue to be an embarrassment.

[Burgerman]

 

He apparently said almost exactly the same thing on the back page 2 months ago. I wad amazed it wasn't picked up by anyone.... This is worse than eddies kebab comment in my book.... I hope this gets publicized as much. Boycott the giants people (preaching to the converted here )

+1 - Sorry Megan, I'm with him

(you may not have the numbers in this forum to have much sympathy for afl...)

+2 he did say that line on "thebackpage" and was covered up and not mentioned again,you cant even find video of it

 

GWS sucks even if they became successful in 5-10years time ill still hate them

[Sovereign]

If anything, it's shown that the success of WSW has definitely ruffled their feathers.

Edited May 12, 2013 by Sovereign

[mick9619]

<playing devil's advocate here>

 

Cool, so we're blowing up over ONE sentence, in an 8 minute interview?

 

Watch the video: http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/gws-presser/video-e6frf33l-1226640627985?subcat=1225914646010 before you comment on that statement by Sheedy, yeah?? 

 

Yes, his comment was poorly worded.

 

But he does have a point.  It was a compliment to how big soccer & its fan base is, as opposed to how difficult it will be to grow AFL in Western Sydney. 

 

Soccer/ football is a world game.  Many of those who live in Western Sydney, have certain ethnicities, who to them - football is their life.

 

AFL on the other hand, does not have that. They have to try and find fans.

 

I will say though, that Kevin Sheedy has dug himself a bit of a hole here - and certainly not a good way to encourage those in the Western suburbs to jump on board the following of the Giants.

just watched the interview, which ever way you put that its never going to sound any better

 

didnt have anything against GWS before this, but know cant stand emm

Edited May 12, 2013 by mick9619

[ManfredSchaefer]

Wonder how the German owned/Czech based Skoda, or for that matter Irish 'star' Setanta O'hAilpin feel about the good old fashioned Anglo-Australian values represented by 'One Nation' Sheedy?

 

Of course like all Wanderers fans who have the immigration department to thank I have to give a big backdated high-five to the colonial authorities who let my Great-Great-Great Grandfathers arrive from Germany, Scotland and Norway. Just think, if they'd have been actually brought out as convicts or been squatters/settlers from the heart of England perhaps I would've been racially acceptable as a fan of the O&B Clowns...

[102megan]

Sheedy's just made this comment: 

@Kevin_Sheedy

2m

"All I said was that Wanderers have an advantage because most people that migrate to Australia know soccer - it's a world sport."

 

^^

Which is how "I" personally, interpreted his comments.  

But yes, he very clearly did word his comments poorly.

 

 

@ciudadmarron Ok - for the record I wasn't aware of him making previous comments regarding this same issue. 

 

@alexd Oh believe me - I was very aware of that before pressing the "Post" button!  But thought it would make things interesting to have a differing opinion. 

 

@ManfredSchaefer - I actually really liked your comment, and find it hard to disagree with the points you've made.  GWS is hardly represents Western Sydney, and like you said, have made no real effort to fit in with the community of Western Sydney.

 

@Sovereign Without a doubt!! 

 

 

@mick9619 Yeah fair point - he really didn't word his comments well, for what (I assume) he was trying to say. 

[marron]

I am very glad my forebears went highway robbing, pilfered the mistresses linen, and marched on vinegar hill, that's for sure, and I'm sure wsw is glad too, where else would they get supporters from otherwise.

[marron]

If he hadn't said it before, if it wasn't a prepared line, I might believe that it was a poor choice of words. Either way it's not going to ingratiate himself with anyone other than boofheafs who already follow the sport.

[ManfredSchaefer]

All Sheedy missed was the chance to say that the Wanderers are also helped by the Department of Women's Issues and the Mardi Gras offices because he only needed to include sheilas and poofs to get the trifecta of anti-football stereotypes.

[elchapo]

[Guest ZipGunBop]

People calling Sheedy a racist?

 

Really?

 

When you've done 1% of the work he has for the indigenous community you can say that. But I bet most wouldn't come close. This is getting ridiculous.

[JamCal]

Zip... I would never call him racist.... But you've got to see how that point does not help the argument... 




He looks after Australians, indigenous and white, but if you're a foreigner it seems like he's pretty prejudiced. 

[Jukes01]

People calling Sheedy a racist?

 

Really?

 

When you've done 1% of the work he has for the indigenous community you can say that. But I bet most wouldn't come close. This is getting ridiculous.

 

 

Zip he may have done work with the indigenous community but that still cant hide the fact that the comments Sheedy made were rascist.

Quite unbelievable actually.

[PaulG23]

 

People calling Sheedy a racist?

 

Really?

 

When you've done 1% of the work he has for the indigenous community you can say that. But I bet most wouldn't come close. This is getting ridiculous.

 

 

Zip he may have done work with the indigenous community but that still cant hide the fact that the comments Sheedy made were rascist.

Quite unbelievable actually.

 

If the comments are classed as racist (I'll sit on the fence on this one! they were poor though!), Sheeds would then be the type of person I loathe where on one hand they help ethnic minorities and then give a back hander to the rest of them.

 

Its sort of like the people who think by going to church and repenting your sins is enough even though once they leave the church grounds, they go ahead and do bad things!!

 

Not happy Sheeds! 

[ManfredSchaefer]

I honestly don't believe that Sheedy is a racist a la Pauline Hanson or other luminaries of the Bogan Australian Right (many who live out this way). However...

 

What he said (whether it was planned or spontaneous) taps into an undercurrent of racism and subconscious xenophobia that is always something that football/soccer fans have had to deal with, and whilst Sheedy may be innocent of racism by commission he is parroting the same racist maxims and beliefs held by anyone who has derided our sport as 'wogball'. And if it was planned he is creating a perpetuating a racist agenda, if unplanned he is simply stupid.

 

And what I find really offensive is by that one stupid media announcement he has written off and generalised not just the club I am utterly passionate about, nor the area where I have lived for almost all my life, he has thought it fitting to create some 'westie everyperson' who is being funnelled into anywhere west of Homebush by a government ministry as if this was all some football-compliant plan. We are all individuals in the western suburbs and our cultures, interests, social activities, education standards, sporting passions are each unique and complex. I've not been channeled into a love of the Wanderers through anyone's action but my own, and as a reaction to what the Wanderers have offered me. Perhaps if that farkwit Sheedy and his AFL overseers understood we in the west aren't just flannel wearing/kofta eating/Houso-living bogans but probably the most diverse area in Australia they might have a chance of connecting...until then...fick ab arschloch!

Edited May 12, 2013 by ManfredSchaefer

[Neverbloom]

I honestly don't believe that Sheedy is a racist a la Pauline Hanson or other luminaries of the Bogan Australian Right (many who love out this way). However...

 

What he said (whether it was planned or spontaneous) taps into an undercurrent or racism and subconscious xenophobia that is always something that football/soccer fans have had to deal with, and whilst Sheedy may be innocent of racism by commission he is parroting the same racist maxims and beliefs held by anyone who has derided our sport as 'wogball'. And if it was planned he is creating a perpetuating a racist agenda, if unplanned he is simply stupid.

 

And what I find really offensive is by that one stupid media announcement he has written off and generalised not just the club I am utterly passionate about, nor the area where I have lived for almost all my life, he has thought it fitting to create some 'westie everyperson' who is being funnelled into anywhere west of Homebush by a government ministry as if this was all some football-compliant plan. We are all individuals in the western suburbs and our cultures, interests, social activities, education standards, sporting passions are each unique and complex. I've not been channeled into a love of the Wanderers through anyone's action but my own, and as a reaction to what the Wanderers have offered me. Perhaps if that farkwit Sheedy and his AFL overseers understood we in the west aren't just flannel wearing/kofta eating/Houso-living bogans but probably the most diverse area in Australia they might have a chance of connecting...until then...fick ab arschloch!

you really have the best posts on pretty much everything

 

his original comments were ridiculous, but if he said the words he said on twitter no one would have bat an eyelid

[Peaches]

I honestly don't believe that Sheedy is a racist a la Pauline Hanson or other luminaries of the Bogan Australian Right (many who live out this way). However...

 

What he said (whether it was planned or spontaneous) taps into an undercurrent of racism and subconscious xenophobia that is always something that football/soccer fans have had to deal with, and whilst Sheedy may be innocent of racism by commission he is parroting the same racist maxims and beliefs held by anyone who has derided our sport as 'wogball'. And if it was planned he is creating a perpetuating a racist agenda, if unplanned he is simply stupid.

 

And what I find really offensive is by that one stupid media announcement he has written off and generalised not just the club I am utterly passionate about, nor the area where I have lived for almost all my life, he has thought it fitting to create some 'westie everyperson' who is being funnelled into anywhere west of Homebush by a government ministry as if this was all some football-compliant plan. We are all individuals in the western suburbs and our cultures, interests, social activities, education standards, sporting passions are each unique and complex. I've not been channeled into a love of the Wanderers through anyone's action but my own, and as a reaction to what the Wanderers have offered me. Perhaps if that farkwit Sheedy and his AFL overseers understood we in the west aren't just flannel wearing/kofta eating/Houso-living bogans but probably the most diverse area in Australia they might have a chance of connecting...until then...fick ab arschloch!

+1 (minus the bit in italics at the bottom because I have no idea what that says lol)

 

I don't think people in such prominent positions can ever make generalized comments like this and think it will be okay. Just such stupidity to say such comments like this.

Football has clearly got under the skin of some of these AFL guys. A few more low crowds may get the rest of the media talking.

[ManfredSchaefer]

 

I honestly don't believe that Sheedy is a racist a la Pauline Hanson or other luminaries of the Bogan Australian Right (many who love out this way). However...

 

What he said (whether it was planned or spontaneous) taps into an undercurrent or racism and subconscious xenophobia that is always something that football/soccer fans have had to deal with, and whilst Sheedy may be innocent of racism by commission he is parroting the same racist maxims and beliefs held by anyone who has derided our sport as 'wogball'. And if it was planned he is creating a perpetuating a racist agenda, if unplanned he is simply stupid.

 

And what I find really offensive is by that one stupid media announcement he has written off and generalised not just the club I am utterly passionate about, nor the area where I have lived for almost all my life, he has thought it fitting to create some 'westie everyperson' who is being funnelled into anywhere west of Homebush by a government ministry as if this was all some football-compliant plan. We are all individuals in the western suburbs and our cultures, interests, social activities, education standards, sporting passions are each unique and complex. I've not been channeled into a love of the Wanderers through anyone's action but my own, and as a reaction to what the Wanderers have offered me. Perhaps if that farkwit Sheedy and his AFL overseers understood we in the west aren't just flannel wearing/kofta eating/Houso-living bogans but probably the most diverse area in Australia they might have a chance of connecting...until then...fick ab arschloch!

you really have the best posts on pretty much everything

 

his original comments were ridiculous, but if he said the words he said on twitter no one would have bat an eyelid

 

Thanks Goat...come up to the Lapstone Hotel for the WoW meet-up and I'll shout you one

 

I must say I do love the Orange and Black Clowns in a similar way to the ESFC Seventh heavens...they just keep giving when it comes to giving me an excuse to open up the spleen and go into uber-rant mode. Yes, I do have a degree of hatred for both franchises, but if they didn't make it so easy to show how little they really care about growing their respective sports in the west either before or after the Wanderers then I'd have a far harder time waxing so venomously. I have been to AFL games and didn't mind them, and on a basic level would love the A-League and its teams all do well for the good of the game. However just like Lyall said at the community celebration in Para a few weeks back, if anyone comes into our backyard to mess with us I want to mess back with them pretty hard.

 

 

(snip)

 

 

+1 (minus the bit in italics at the bottom because I have no idea what that says lol)

 

I don't think people in such prominent positions can ever make generalized comments like this and think it will be okay. Just such stupidity to say such comments like this.

Football has clearly got under the skin of some of these AFL guys. A few more low crowds may get the rest of the media talking.

 

 

Fick ab arschloch = 'fucq off arsehole' lol

[THRILLHO]

Did I accidentally click on the afl bashing thread? Or the eddy McGuire opinion column?

 

I dont hate sheedy. Don't hate the giants. For people who claim to feel bullied by fans of other sports people on this forum can sure dish it out. Yeah today's crowd was ****, but at the start of the a league season wanderers were only getting a bit more, until we started winning. I love both of these western sydney teams, people saying they want to see GWS fail is ridiculous in my opinion. We might only have an average of like 7,000 at home games but there's 7,000 fans (or members like myself) who almost every week watch our team get smashed. But we stick through it. When we start winning, we aren't going to take it for granted. I am so excited for the next few years with GWS, take out the politics or whatever, and it's just a very very very young team who have heart. Yes they don't have the same community engagement as wsw, but who does?

 

Afl is still a minority in sydney. Hate the nrl.

[ManfredSchaefer]

Did I accidentally click on the afl bashing thread? Or the eddy McGuire opinion column?

 

I dont hate sheedy. Don't hate the giants. For people who claim to feel bullied by fans of other sports people on this forum can sure dish it out. Yeah today's crowd was ****, but at the start of the a league season wanderers were only getting a bit more, until we started winning. I love both of these western sydney teams, people saying they want to see GWS fail is ridiculous in my opinion. We might only have an average of like 7,000 at home games but there's 7,000 fans (or members like myself) who almost every week watch our team get smashed. But we stick through it. When we start winning, we aren't going to take it for granted. I am so excited for the next few years with GWS, take out the politics or whatever, and it's just a very very very young team who have heart. Yes they don't have the same community engagement as wsw, but who does?

 

Afl is still a minority in sydney. Hate the nrl.

 

Thrillho, you are welcome to be a supporter of both the Wanderers and the O&B Clowns, and to not hate Sheedy. However no one here is attacking Sheedy or the Skoda Fails because we feel bullied. If anything the vitriol aimed at Sheedy and the AFL is indicative of how passionate the majority of WSW members are about respecting and protecting the values and culture not just of the club, or football generally, but of the Western Suburbs as a whole. Forget who is winning and who is losing, forget crowd stats and who gets smashed. Right now there are two relatively new clubs supposedly representing Western Sydney in two different codes. One is led by a man who has engaged with fans from the get go, guided by an organisation that has wanted to remedy past slights, coached by a man who came from the area, is culturally and racially diverse and plays out of the Western Suburbs without any desire to be anything but of the western suburbs.

 

The other club is one that has feet in Canberra, in Melbourne, in the Riverina and Sydney central districts. It has a rich interstate organisation behind it that has imposed everything about their sport via the club supposedly for the benefit of western suburbs juniuors, then run away from those commitments to spend more time at Homebush than Blacktown. That same club has a coach who not once but twice has made pronouncements about the Wanderers being (paraphrasing here) built up by wogs channelled in by the government. This same club failed miserably to do anything with the millions it spent on a failed code hopper who is now a probably Wallaby, and still supposedly reflects Western Sydney where a sizable demographic of the local populace are on at best average wages and living at best aspirational lives.

 

You are perfectly entitled to follow both clubs and find comfort in each. However speaking for myself and perhaps for many others here the whole Orange and Black Clowns phenomenon has nothing to do with Western Sydney, elicits no support, no passion, and they have utterly disrespected the people who are supposedly their core constituents. You can only expect people to be pissed on so many times before someone says enough...

 

PS...what does it say about the mindset of the O&B Clowns when they have named their new training centre at Homebush (you know, the one that they had to build with taxpayers help when Blacktown didn't entirely meet their requirements) after Tom Wills, a guy who lived in Victoria from the age of 5 and had more to do with the Victorian origins of Australian Rules than anything to do with 'Greater Western Sydney'? Their ideology, their culture, their revenue and their attitudes are all shaped by people and principles alien to western Sydney.

Edited May 12, 2013 by ManfredSchaefer

[Neverbloom]

 

 

I honestly don't believe that Sheedy is a racist a la Pauline Hanson or other luminaries of the Bogan Australian Right (many who love out this way). However...

 

What he said (whether it was planned or spontaneous) taps into an undercurrent or racism and subconscious xenophobia that is always something that football/soccer fans have had to deal with, and whilst Sheedy may be innocent of racism by commission he is parroting the same racist maxims and beliefs held by anyone who has derided our sport as 'wogball'. And if it was planned he is creating a perpetuating a racist agenda, if unplanned he is simply stupid.

 

And what I find really offensive is by that one stupid media announcement he has written off and generalised not just the club I am utterly passionate about, nor the area where I have lived for almost all my life, he has thought it fitting to create some 'westie everyperson' who is being funnelled into anywhere west of Homebush by a government ministry as if this was all some football-compliant plan. We are all individuals in the western suburbs and our cultures, interests, social activities, education standards, sporting passions are each unique and complex. I've not been channeled into a love of the Wanderers through anyone's action but my own, and as a reaction to what the Wanderers have offered me. Perhaps if that farkwit Sheedy and his AFL overseers understood we in the west aren't just flannel wearing/kofta eating/Houso-living bogans but probably the most diverse area in Australia they might have a chance of connecting...until then...fick ab arschloch!

you really have the best posts on pretty much everything

 

his original comments were ridiculous, but if he said the words he said on twitter no one would have bat an eyelid

 

Thanks Goat...come up to the Lapstone Hotel for the WoW meet-up and I'll shout you one

 

I must say I do love the Orange and Black Clowns in a similar way to the ESFC Seventh heavens...they just keep giving when it comes to giving me an excuse to open up the spleen and go into uber-rant mode. Yes, I do have a degree of hatred for both franchises, but if they didn't make it so easy to show how little they really care about growing their respective sports in the west either before or after the Wanderers then I'd have a far harder time waxing so venomously. I have been to AFL games and didn't mind them, and on a basic level would love the A-League and its teams all do well for the good of the game. However just like Lyall said at the community celebration in Para a few weeks back, if anyone comes into our backyard to mess with us I want to mess back with them pretty hard.

 

 

(snip)

 

 

+1 (minus the bit in italics at the bottom because I have no idea what that says lol)

 

I don't think people in such prominent positions can ever make generalized comments like this and think it will be okay. Just such stupidity to say such comments like this.

Football has clearly got under the skin of some of these AFL guys. A few more low crowds may get the rest of the media talking.

 

 

Fick ab arschloch = 'fucq off arsehole' lol

thank you my apologies for not knowing but i assume your talking about the way out west thing right? thank you though

 

i will just say it wasnt the smartest language i think much of it has to do with the wording though but its always hard to tell with sheedy i know he does like to stir the pot

[THRILLHO]

Manfred (and everyone else here) all raise valid and interesting/correct points. But basically, when I go to a game(or watch it on my tv) I feel the same passion for the GWS team as I do for WSW. I dislike the afl and nrls attempts on stamping out football in Australia. I agree that the wanderers HAVE made way more of an effort to engage with western sydney. But with all that said, of course I'm going to get defensive when everyone in the a league, nrl, afl, and every other sports code gives me crap for supporting GWS and hoping that a team I love folds up into nothingness. It's exactly how you feel about everyone who doubted wsw this time last year. I dunno I'm kinda drunk cause I went to tenacious d tonight but I'm just sick of copping it from all angles for being a giant!

 

I guess point of this post; GWS are an obvious minority in a non afl city who already have a team many are dedicated too. They didn't go about getting the community support anywhere near as well as wsw did, but it's still a team I love, so when people rag on it I will on some level be defensive

[ManfredSchaefer]

Manfred (and everyone else here) all raise valid and interesting/correct points. But basically, when I go to a game(or watch it on my tv) I feel the same passion for the GWS team as I do for WSW. I dislike the afl and nrls attempts on stamping out football in Australia. I agree that the wanderers HAVE made way more of an effort to engage with western sydney. But with all that said, of course I'm going to get defensive when everyone in the a league, nrl, afl, and every other sports code gives me crap for supporting GWS and hoping that a team I love folds up into nothingness. It's exactly how you feel about everyone who doubted wsw this time last year. I dunno I'm kinda drunk cause I went to tenacious d tonight but I'm just sick of copping it from all angles for being a giant!

 

I guess point of this post; GWS are an obvious minority in a non afl city who already have a team many are dedicated too. They didn't go about getting the community support anywhere near as well as wsw did, but it's still a team I love, so when people rag on it I will on some level be defensive

 

I won't give anyone personal crap for supporting any team because as strange as it sounds I respect anyone's right to follow even the Orange and Black Clowns or the latte sipping All-Night Dwight Loving Bling from ESFC. What I cannot fücking stand is both the underlying contempt felt by far too many people for football and the WSW because of racist stereotypes that have been reinforced for decades thanks to the sporting media (who've been in bed with the League and AFL far closer than ethics should allow) and the ignorance, disregard or stereotypical value judgements made on Wanderers fans and the western suburbs (which in turn reflect on me). Right now there seems to be an atmosphere of fear and loathing whenever someone connects football with the supposed great unwashed ethnic masses of the Western Suburbs, and this is being popularised by the likes of Kevin Sheedy, Ray Hadley, Danny Weidler with their public statements built on bias and prejudice. And if someone disses my club and the values inherent in them as represented by standing up for the west, well all bets are off for those who keep spinning that web of ignorant hatred.

 

Poor punters like you Thrillho are the meat in the sandwich, having to defend not just something you are passionate about but by proxy and unintentionally people and values contrary to part of your interests. It must take quite an effort to have to stomach some of the idiocy of the O&B Clowns and also feel support for a club that has built a culture the antithesis of the Wanderers.

[Guest ZipGunBop]

Manfred (and everyone else here) all raise valid and interesting/correct points. But basically, when I go to a game(or watch it on my tv) I feel the same passion for the GWS team as I do for WSW. I dislike the afl and nrls attempts on stamping out football in Australia. I agree that the wanderers HAVE made way more of an effort to engage with western sydney. But with all that said, of course I'm going to get defensive when everyone in the a league, nrl, afl, and every other sports code gives me crap for supporting GWS and hoping that a team I love folds up into nothingness. It's exactly how you feel about everyone who doubted wsw this time last year. I dunno I'm kinda drunk cause I went to tenacious d tonight but I'm just sick of copping it from all angles for being a giant!I guess point of this post; GWS are an obvious minority in a non afl city who already have a team many are dedicated too. They didn't go about getting the community support anywhere near as well as wsw did, but it's still a team I love, so when people rag on it I will on some level be defensive

+1.

 

All 6,000 of us will be laughing in a few years.

 

"Hey thrillho, remember when we were getting belted every week?" Haha.

 

Honestly I don't care a jot about all the hate on us. Hasn't stopped me going and cheering the boys on. If people don't like it then don't go. No-ones got a gun to your head.

 

And in all honesty the AFL does not give a **** if Football/NRL people don't follow us. It's not them they are trying to hook anyway.

 

In other news,

 

Congrats to Gold Coast for belting the Dee's. tracking very nicely for a team that is supposed to be worse than Giants.

[PaulG23]

And in all honesty the AFL does not give a **** if Football/NRL people don't follow us. It's not them they are trying to hook anyway.

 

In other news,

 

Congrats to Gold Coast for belting the Dee's. tracking very nicely for a team that is supposed to be worse than Giants.

 

That's right... both the Giants and the Suns teams are there for expat Vic/SA/WA/Tas/NT supporters to have as their second team (and maybe become their first team) and also to turn up to see an AFL game. If they get some local support then great also (it worked for the Swans after 30 years!).

 

Fat chance if that will work on me... and I'll be doing everything in my power trying to get my children supporting the Bombers!

 

Also, am happy for Gold Coast too, but it helps that they have the son of God playing for them!