View Full Version : State Of Origin impact on the Giants
With the NSW origin team losing 5 straight series and potentially could be losing their 6th this year the timing could not be more perfect for the GWS Giants to enter the competition in 2012. Also with no ethnic presence in the team it could be another reason for a few communities to switch allegiances to the AFL. I guess only time will tell but I think it will benefit the Giants if QLD manage to win the S.O.O again this year.
What are your thoughts about this?
Greenmachine
15 Jun 2011, 13:45
With the NSW origin team losing 5 straight series and potentially could be losing their 6th this year the timing could not be more perfect for the GWS Giants to enter the competition in 2012. Also with no ethnic presence in the team it could be another reason for a few communities to switch allegiances to the AFL. I guess only time will tell but I think it will benefit the Giants if QLD manage to win the S.O.O again this year.
What are your thoughts about this?
my thoughts are I haven't read anything as stupid in quite a while :eek::rolleyes:
my thoughts are I haven't read anything as stupid in quite a while :eek::rolleyes:
Not since the latest deluded rantings from some Terrorgraph hack that Pommy Throwball will get $1 billion for their next TV rights deal anyway.
oozeboss
16 Jun 2011, 05:52
OP: no disrespect intended, but you obviously don't live in Sydney.
Trust me as being some one who does, but the battle to establish our footy team here is far more complex than merely relying on the results of the State of Oranges or the participation rates of ethnic groups.
GWS really is the frontier battle of the AFL, and it will be long & damn hard, and assumptions based on simple truisms will not apply.
(BTW: it is now the morning after the night before, and I still have no idea of what happened last night. And I care even less.)
speedpeck23
16 Jun 2011, 13:35
NRL and AFL will both get bigger in Sydney. Competition breeds success.
dr_protocol
16 Jun 2011, 15:55
GWS longer tem success will partially be due to the support of the westie mums who are worried about little Johnnies health and wellbeing.
The thought of him packing down in a scrum against a Somoan/Maori or Tongan kid the same age, but twice the size doesn't really make her feel all that comfortable.
If Sheedy and co. push for sensible rule modifications and practices at junior level to help ensure they have fun, are physically safer than Thugby, improve their fitness and have a sensible entry to the lucrative higher levels if they shine at AFL, then this will help entrench GWS into the overall western sport scene quite nicely.
GWS longer tem success will partially be due to the support of the westie mums who are worried about little Johnnies health and wellbeing.
The thought of him packing down in a scrum against a Somoan/Maori or Tongan kid the same age, but twice the size doesn't really make her feel all that comfortable.
If Sheedy and co. push for sensible rule modifications and practices at junior level to help ensure they have fun, are physically safer than Thugby, improve their fitness and have a sensible entry to the lucrative higher levels if they shine at AFL, then this will help entrench GWS into the overall western sport scene quite nicely.
Modifications at junior level are already in place, certainly in western Sydney anyway.
At U/10 level you can only grab the ball carrier's jumper and then let it go, and the umpire then counts to 3 by which time you must have disposed of the ball.
Nor are you allowed to smother, and they don't keep score.
Very unlikely to see a kid get injured under these rules, which is obviously what they're after.
oozeboss
17 Jun 2011, 08:51
GWS's success will come about in time simply through exposure to the game, even though I personally think that the choice of nickname, logo and colours are all opportunities missed.
Example: I took my wife's nephew to the Swans - Hawks game a few rounds back. For the sake of the OP, you should know that my wife & her family are Lebanese, and she grew up literally next door to Belmore Oval when the Canterbury - Bankstown Bulldogs still played there. Her nephew is 18yo, grew up in Punchbowl, & is very much dyed in the wool Rugby League (Sydney Roosters, in his case). You talk of ethnic groups: I married in to one.
On the day of this game at the SCG, the NRL had scheduled a game at the SFS next door, so AFL & NRL fans parked together in that grassed area opposite the grounds. As soon as we stepped out of the car, our nephew was thunderstruck by the number of Swans and Hawks fans that were present (he later commented that even the away Hawks had more fans than the entire crowd at the SFS - it was Sydney v Newcastle there, and the AFL crowd outnumbered them by over 5:1).
We snagged seats in the very front row of General Admission, next to the Swans' cheer squad. Nephew couldn't get over how the AFL fans all seemed to get on well, and could not get over how close we were to the action. NRL games, he noted, never gave its spectators the chance to be so very close to the actual playing arena. The pre-game goal shooting warm up also got his juices going, and he loved seeing the ball hurtle in to the masses with every score (Buddy's 400th career goal late in the game sailed literally directly over his head).
Being as close as he was sitting allowed him to see the phenomenal strength and fitness levels of the actual players (Buddy Franklin, close up, is simply massive), and also amplified their tremendous acceleration when taking off for the ball. He commented during the game about the constant motion of all players as formations adjusted to the flow of the ball, and he could not get over the stamina of the players compared to that he was so used to in the other game.
He was also taken aback by the strength and spectacle of pack marks, and how hard AFL players hit and get hit. Three metres in front of our seating, Jordan Lewis tried to nail little Benny McGlynn late in the game & winded himself, and our nephew both saw the hit coming and marvelled at the massive impact.
After the game, he got to do what NRL fans never do: walk, for the first time after attending any number of games of football, on the actual field of dreams (the Swans allow kick to kick from about 15 minutes after the final siren). He stood in the midst of the huge pack of fans of all colours (including his uncle's misplaced navy and white hoops), just marvelling at the sheer community spirit of the fans.
We wandered the Fox entertainment quarter for a bit after leaving the SCG, revelling in the feel good afterglow of the game, before driving home, and he was absolutely overawed by what he's seen. His sheer delight at what he'd participated in and observed totally dominated the conversation in the car.
That day, a once fanatical NRL supporter converted.
And that, comrades, is how GWS will conquer Western Sydney. Each experience like that, each story like that: five, then ten, then twenty, then thirty thousand times.
:footy:
Giants FC
17 Jun 2011, 11:25
I can't see that State of Origin would have any impact. Origin is only 3 weeknight games, so it'll never clash with GWS games.
I went out to the game at Homebush on Wednesday night - it wasn't a bad game, and a good result for NSW. And it's good to know it will never clash with the Giants' games.
Although I could be a cheeky bugger and suggest that, with Israel Folau changing games and NSW winning on Wednesday night, the question could be asked about the Giants impact on State of Origin.
Bump.
Does one year make a difference? (Saw someone talk about this in another thread)
oozeboss
26 May 2012, 07:52
As Ian said: not one iota.
GWS is growing fantastically at the moment, and no outside factors are having even the slightest effect either way.
(This is also discussed in the crowd numbers thread hereabouts.)