Prediction GWS THE FUTURE

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This just gets worse and worse. What is he doing on our board? We need someone exclusively focused on us.
He was a great get at the beginning. We needed people to show we're serious, and Tony Shepherd is a big name in those circles. I'd be shocked if he isn't a big reason that we've had great corporate support for years.

But if he's going to play this kind of conflict of interest, get stuffed.
 

Andre the Giant

Norm Smith Medallist
Feb 20, 2012
6,625
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Melbourne, VIC
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Is it true the Laundy family have some interest in the Giants? They have been a positive for the NRL Bulldogs and seem to be very influential. I remember reading about them in dispatches having some connection but others would l ow better.
 
Is it true the Laundy family have some interest in the Giants? They have been a positive for the NRL Bulldogs and seem to be very influential. I remember reading about them in dispatches having some connection but others would l ow better.
Arthur is all in in Western Sydney.
Apparently has a very bullish view on West of Parramatta and is trying to get as big a foothold he can. The Giants fits that.
 

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Andre the Giant

Norm Smith Medallist
Feb 20, 2012
6,625
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Melbourne, VIC
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GWS
Arthur is all in in Western Sydney.
Apparently has a very bullish view on West of Parramatta and is trying to get as big a foothold he can. The Giants fits that.
From what I can see he has already convinced Burton and Gould to go to the Bulldogs and now possibly Ciraldo who is the most heavily pursued coach. Also pouring millions into the club. He would seem a good ally.
 
Sep 6, 2012
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Giants chairman Tony Shepherd believes it’d be “worthwhile” revisiting the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) for Sydney-based clubs, claiming it’d not only help his club retain talent but also attract experienced AFL staffers.

Asked on 3AW’s
Sportsday why the Giants keep losing – and are expected to lose – prized talent, Shepherd said: “There‘s two things you’ve got to understand. The cost of living in Sydney is a lot higher than in Melbourne and significantly higher than Adelaide or Perth or Brisbane, so that has an impact on player retention. And there’s always that get-home factor for guys that come up from Melbourne.

“That‘s another problem for us is getting the experienced staff in AFL because they come up here and they’ve finally got to pay a lot more for rent or houses than they did in Melbourne or Adelaide or Perth. So that cost of living is an issue for us, there’s no doubt about that.”

Here's a question for you Tony.

If COLA is the reason for our troubles, how do you explain the rise of the Swans? Like us, they don't get COLA anymore and were the reason it was removed.

But look at how they responded. Without our generous draft concessions, they're currently top four and have a chance of finishing top two. They have no trouble attracting and retaining talent, whether it's players or staff. They're well-coached and well managed.

And unlike us, they didn't fall apart in 2020.

Why the Swans, and not us?
 

Giant Pete

Norm Smith Medallist
Jan 17, 2013
7,543
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Here's a question for you Tony.

If COLA is the reason for our troubles, how do you explain the rise of the Swans? Like us, they don't get COLA anymore and were the reason it was removed.

But look at how they responded. Without our generous draft concessions, they're currently top four and have a chance of finishing top two. They have no trouble attracting and retaining talent, whether it's players or staff. They're well-coached and well managed.

And unlike us, they didn't fall apart in 2020.

Why the Swans, and not us?
Do they attract talent? Buddy… not much else.
 
Do they attract talent? Buddy… not much else.
Depends how long a time frame you want to take. They don't generally recruit stars (other than KPFs - Lockett, Hall, Tippett, Franklin...) but they do have a great record of identifying underutilised guys who fit their system (Kennedy, McGlynn, the guy who came across from Essendon and played halfback for a decade for them who's name I can't remember, plenty of rucks).
 
Depends how long a time frame you want to take. They don't generally recruit stars (other than KPFs - Lockett, Hall, Tippett, Franklin...) but they do have a great record of identifying underutilised guys who fit their system (Kennedy, McGlynn, the guy who came across from Essendon and played halfback for a decade for them who's name I can't remember, plenty of rucks).
TBF everyone of those was in the COLA era (excluding a couple journey man rucks)

We have finished ahead of them in all but one year post COLA.

A bit of recency bias going on here.

The Swans are a fabulous club. However we've been pretty dam good our selves prior to this year. We have won a final in 5 of the last 6 years.
 

Cameron_Jezza

Team Captain
Sep 12, 2021
421
401
AFL Club
Geelong
Here's a question for you Tony.

If COLA is the reason for our troubles, how do you explain the rise of the Swans? Like us, they don't get COLA anymore and were the reason it was removed.

But look at how they responded. Without our generous draft concessions, they're currently top four and have a chance of finishing top two. They have no trouble attracting and retaining talent, whether it's players or staff. They're well-coached and well managed.

And unlike us, they didn't fall apart in 2020.

Why the Swans, and not us?
They have academy players from Sydney who can live at home in their first few years as a Swan if they want to. That must help.
 
They have academy players from Sydney who can live at home in their first few years as a Swan if they want to. That must help.
and had a good run of them recently. We had a good run a few years back when we had Hopper, Setterfield, Perryman, Kennedy, Cumming and Himmelberg in quick succession.
 
Sep 6, 2012
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They do have 100 years of history to call upon. Makes a difference.
For most of that time, South Melbourne were an unsuccessful club, and forced to relocate in order to survive. Even then, they came close to folding again.

Then along came Richard Colless, and they became perennial finalists, and grand finalists.

We need someone like him on the board.
 

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PaythePerryman

Club Legend
Oct 13, 2020
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Is it time for big Dave Matthews to ride off into the sunset?

Dave in many ways has been a sound CEO, the club has been largely successful, stable and has had some growth in a particularly tricky region.

He has however made some huge errors. The retention of Leon Cameron, the appointment of Craig Cameron. The neglect of importance given to support staff and lobbying harder for these resources.

His absolute meddling in the Coniglio appointment as captain and overseeing the long uncommercial contracts given on an unbalanced list.

Not all of these are his direct responsibility, but as CEO it’s on his watch.

My problem with Matthews is that he has and will always be mostly concerned with himself. He was planted by the AFL and has done very little to separate himself as an ambitious AFL stooge.

GWS was given the greatest draft concessions and assistance in AFL history and was unable to win a flag. As we sit the club has not been further away from winning a flag since 2014.

Dave Matthews has put his hat in the ring for the AFL CEO role. He is not alone in doing this but when you look at the club and the way it is run it is such a PC virtue signaling vanilla excuse.

At this vital time when we are without a coach where is Matthews in the media lobbying for AFL assistance? Where is he lobbying publicly for COLA? Where is he talking about losing our last first round selections Caldwell, Hately and now Bruhn and still unable to re-sign Callaghan because of huge temptations from established clubs? He is like f*****g Marcel Marceau.

This guy used his personal friendships to hire the wrong people and retain the wrong people instead of getting it right and then supporting those guys with more resources.

Instead of the “One Club” PC crap pumping up a Clayton’s competition of part time players without a fair distribution of talent, how about doing everything possible in the most ruthless and efficient way making the primary concern a leader and a winner?

Right now from the outside it looks like the club has been run into the ground. The A grade talent has been siphoned out or what remains is aging or not as good as it was.

The list is not balanced with more holes in it then Swiss cheese. We have been unable to secure the signature of the primary coaching target (don’t believe the media BS that he wasn’t).

I think it’s time for Dave to use his buffed up CV and toddle off somewhere else in the corporate world. If not the AFL, perhaps AFLW or something else that will impress the woke brigade.

The CEO of GWS needs to be a ruthless, single minded killer, not a CV filler.

Time for change.
PC virtue signalling? Wot?

I think we've been pretty successful. People get upset when we lose but football is cyclical...we have a young list and I think it'll balance out well over the next year and set us up for another sustained run at finals.

Single minded, ruthless psychos as CEOs can stay in the past as far as I'm concerned. I'd rather someone who creates a strong culture from top down (which I believe exists at the club).
We all get losing...but we won't be losing for long.
 
Oct 12, 2016
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Matthews has done a fantastic job establishing a foothold in a very tough market. He is a good operator, speaks well and honestly which is what you want from a CEO. Draft picks do not equal premierships, quite the opposite. Recruiting to Sydney has many roadblocks, a lot of players have knocked us back on better offers than the clubs they are at. For every Bruhn, Caldwell etc there is a Sam Taylor, Nick Haynes, Cogs, Greene who are 100% committed. If guys aren't all in then let them go. I don't understand why people think the sky is falling. The players need to hear a new voice and new direction, the coaching box had stagnated, the game style had gone backwards, the list is out of whack, we have midfielders plugging holes on flanks, play no back up ruck or 2 plodders. Whoever comes in has a few valuable trade assets to work with, some good picks, a strong group of experienced players, quality bookends, a decent midfield and a couple of genuine stars of the comp.
 

Hendo_21

Club Legend
Aug 14, 2021
1,928
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PC virtue signalling? Wot?

I think we've been pretty successful. People get upset when we lose but football is cyclical...we have a young list and I think it'll balance out well over the next year and set us up for another sustained run at finals.

Single minded, ruthless psychos as CEOs can stay in the past as far as I'm concerned. I'd rather someone who creates a strong culture from top down (which I believe exists at the club).
We all get losing...but we won't be losing for long.
100% this
 
The Virtue Signalling is the stuff we see in social media, the pushing of celebrating religious festivals and days, frankly I would prefer a footy club to be independent of this crap. The over the top PR of W which let’s face it is currently a semi professional mess.

A footy club can be inclusive of everybody without needing to peddle fake BS support.
A footy club that needs to establish itself explicitly endorses events that are important to the local community, and it's a bad thing?
Our club has a less than stellar record with indigenous players, yet doesn’t see fit the need to have a full time liaison for that role. To me that is more important given the number of ingenious players that dominate the sport. This means more than tokenism.
It's not one or the other FWIW. You can be explicitly inclusive and multicultural (especially given the realities of where the club is), while also dropping the ball in other areas.
 

Hendo_21

Club Legend
Aug 14, 2021
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Wasn't quite sure where to put this but not sure why they haven't changed the name of Tom Willis oval (our training facility) yet considering some his involvement in some inhumane activity a while back. There isn't a great indigenous (or non-indigenous) leader in football from the area they can name it after? Feel like we normally do a pretty good job of being progressive and on the front foot of a lot of cultural and societal issues but this seems like an easy one to correct. Unless we don't have the ability to change it, maybe it's a government thing?
 

BarryAglett

7th Round Draft Pick
Sep 24, 2014
1,516
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Wasn't quite sure where to put this but not sure why they haven't changed the name of Tom Willis oval (our training facility) yet considering some his involvement in some inhumane activity a while back. There isn't a great indigenous (or non-indigenous) leader in football from the area they can name it after? Feel like we normally do a pretty good job of being progressive and on the front foot of a lot of cultural and societal issues but this seems like an easy one to correct. Unless we don't have the ability to change it, maybe it's a government thing?
Doesn't bother me, personally*.
I suspect the oval will be renamed once we have our first Brownlow medalist, or something.

*I initially wrote a paragraph about his life and actions, but people can research and come to your own conclusions.
 
Sep 6, 2012
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Here's a thought.

We beat the Swans by a point in the EF last year.

This year, we finished 17th. They finished 3rd and get the double chance. Meanwhile the number of games we win continues to slide.

What is it about the way the Swans are managed that saw them go from being basket cases to perennial finalists? That sees them consistently avoid bottoming out and refreshing themselves so effectively?

We need to learn from them, and take a leaf out of their book.
 
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PaythePerryman

Club Legend
Oct 13, 2020
1,002
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AFL Club
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Agree with this. Greene Oval at some stage in the future I'd imagine.

I think once it gets redeveloped into where our AFLW team actually play they will rebrand it somehow.
 
Apr 12, 2012
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The club will not survive another 10 years of being, supposedly, both for Western Sydney and Canberra.
They need to make a choice.
But besides that.
The board needs a refresh, Bartell on it is a joke and not a funny one.
The only people on it should be those who love the club, the region or both, not those looking for an easy part time gig.

Shepherd, Matthews, Costello, and especially Bartel(yes i can hold a grudge) all need to go.

I would have Davis replace Bartel, as he is someone who loves the club and the region having made his home here.

From the other 3 position would have two voted on by members to give them a voice/ownership.
The 3rd needs to be someone who is knee deep in Western Sydney and the community.

Of course this is all mute if the club continues to be part time Sydney or goes all in in Canberra.
 
Sep 6, 2012
3,055
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Sydney
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The club will not survive another 10 years of being, supposedly, both for Western Sydney and Canberra.
They need to make a choice.
But besides that.
The board needs a refresh, Bartell on it is a joke and not a funny one.
The only people on it should be those who love the club, the region or both, not those looking for an easy part time gig.

Shepherd, Matthews, Costello, and especially Bartel(yes i can hold a grudge) all need to go.

I would have Davis replace Bartel, as he is someone who loves the club and the region having made his home here.

From the other 3 position would have two voted on by members to give them a voice/ownership.
The 3rd needs to be someone who is knee deep in Western Sydney and the community.

Of course this is all mute if the club continues to be part time Sydney or goes all in in Canberra.

You're back with a vengeance.

Just wondering what you thought of Shepherd's idea (assuming it was his) of playing home games at the SCG?
 
Nov 26, 2016
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You're back with a vengeance.

Just wondering what you thought of Shepherd's idea (assuming it was his) of playing home games at the SCG?

Was it actually Shepherd's idea?

I listened to the podcast and Healy asked him about moving games and his response was like 'aw, yeah, it's something we're looking into'. My interpretation was that he didn't sound that keen on it.

Edit: But I'm unsure whether or not Shepherd had raised it previously.
 

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