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General Giant said:
www.smh.com.au

'My mind was all over the place': Cameron's decision to return to Victoria the hardest of his life

An emotional Jeremy Cameron said his decision to leave Greater Western Sydney for Geelong was the hardest decision of his life.
www.smh.com.au www.smh.com.au


'My mind was all over the place': Cameron's decision to return to Victoria the hardest of his life
Peter Ryan
By Peter Ryan
November 13, 2020 — 11.59am

Geelong recruit Jeremy Cameron has become emotional when describing the day he had to inform Giants' coach Leon Cameron and his teammates that he had decided to return to Victoria to be alongside family after being a foundation player at the club.

The 27-year-old's bottom lip quivered as he spoke of the moment he rang the coach to invite him to his house in Sydney to tell him the opportunity to join the Cats would set both him and his partner Indiana's life in the direction they wanted to head.

Over weeks he would go to bed thinking he had made up his mind to move but would wake him resolute that he would be staying at the Giants.

"It's honestly the hardest decision I have ever had to make in my life," Cameron said.


"My mind was all over the place."

On the weekend the AFL's preliminary final was played he and Indiana went away for the weekend to mull over the decision, the pair sleeping in a swag in the bush and talking over the positives and negatives he would face whichever way their call landed.

Driving home from that weekend his mind was made up and the next day he called Leon to tell him to his face.

"It was very emotional. I still remember calling Leon to say do you mind coming over to sit on the couch as we need to have a chat. It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Leon has given me so much over a long period of time," Cameron said.

Cameron described the huge influence his coach had on pushing him to be as good as he could be and had to gather himself as he spoke.


"Having him sit in my loungeroom and here that I was leaving was very tough and it is still, obviously, clearly a little bit emotional now," Cameron said.

He said the way his teammates accepted his decision was humbling and showed the care people at the club had for each other away from football

"It's going to be tough to play against them," Cameron said.

"I have nothing bad to say about the Giants."


However he knows the opportunities that lie ahead at the Cats and said one of the reasons he wanted to be at Geelong was to work with Tom Hawkins as he has so much admiration and respect for the Coleman medallist and the way he plays the game.

He said he looked forward to pushing up the ground and using his mobility inside the forward half of the ground and also continuing to maintain the right balance between football and other parts of his life such as fishing, playing golf and camping.

Cameron admitted he was fishing off Arnhem Land when this year's grand final was played having travelled from Darwin by car for two and half hours and then sat on a big boat for 12 hours before they dropped in lines searching for barramundi.

"I had no service for seven days. I watched the grand final when I got back...I was getting updates via satellite phone but even that was dropping out," Cameron said.
Click to expand...

Very saddened he has left, but wish him all the best and would never "boo" him..
We all have lives to live outside of our chosen profession and they, with family, should come first.
 
sydney_gws said:
Surely with growth in junior participation 18 teams now is ok given there were 16 teams in 1997
Click to expand...

"Current financial position" is Covid19 affected - nothing to do with too many teams.
"Current financial position" is to do with spending and hopefully this years pruning with reap future benefits.
"Review of the entire competition" I suggest would focus on finances and stop the VFL-like cost spiral.
Just look how second tier competitions get buy with a fraction of the turnover.

The simple fact is, if you cull clubs then new clubs sink to the bottom.
It's been proven historically that more clubs produce more money (in a balanced competition).
The secret is always a balanced competition.
 

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So from a good source the feeling is the problem at GWS is in regards to leadership at the club.

This is not a dig at Coniglio who is very popular in the group but the feeling is there are not a lot of strong leaders at the club that can drive it.

Phil has been a terrific leader but he has gotten to a stage where his body is badly beaten up and he is now concentrating on keeping it together. He cannot put the same amount of time as he has done previously being a leader and driving standards. Cal has similar issues and is also not a demonstrative person by nature.

Kelly and Whitfield are great individual talents but are not born leaders. They are professional and train and work hard but they are not drivers, neither is Haynes.

We have still a lot of very young talent, guys like Green, Ash (if he stays), Riccardi do have leadership qualities but they are too young to drive standards.

The hub was a great example of where our lack of leadership caused the team to fall apart and not cope with a difficult situation.

Theoretically our team and GCS should have coped best with the hubs as there are very few married players and even fewer with kids but we actually coped worst of all.

So where do we go from here? I think we need to see if someone like Taranto wants that type of role and also expect a bit more from De Boer who is a very hard worker and is experienced and perhaps work harder on Haynes who shows a lot of team first qualities required to drive higher standards. Toby Greene is another.

I wonder if we use Leading Teams or should look into bringing that in to see if that can help develop these qualities?

The exit meetings were quite enlightening. By all reports the players like Leon and think he’s a good coach but maybe feel they need guys within to set a winning culture that can take them to the promised land.
 
Andre the Giant said:
So from a good source the feeling is the problem at GWS is in regards to leadership at the club.

This is not a dig at Coniglio who is very popular in the group but the feeling is there are not a lot of strong leaders at the club that can drive it.

Phil has been a terrific leader but he has gotten to a stage where his body is badly beaten up and he is now concentrating on keeping it together. He cannot put the same amount of time as he has done previously being a leader and driving standards. Cal has similar issues and is also not a demonstrative person by nature.

Kelly and Whitfield are great individual talents but are not born leaders. They are professional and train and work hard but they are not drivers, neither is Haynes.

We have still a lot of very young talent, guys like Green, Ash (if he stays), Riccardi do have leadership qualities but they are too young to drive standards.

The hub was a great example of where our lack of leadership caused the team to fall apart and not cope with a difficult situation.

Theoretically our team and GCS should have coped best with the hubs as there are very few married players and even fewer with kids but we actually coped worst of all.

So where do we go from here? I think we need to see if someone like Taranto wants that type of role and also expect a bit more from De Boer who is a very hard worker and is experienced and perhaps work harder on Haynes who shows a lot of team first qualities required to drive higher standards. Toby Greene is another.

I wonder if we use Leading Teams or should look into bringing that in to see if that can help develop these qualities?

The exit meetings were quite enlightening. By all reports the players like Leon and think he’s a good coach but maybe feel they need guys within to set a winning culture that can take them to the promised land.
Click to expand...

Taranto is clearly the guy who the younger players look to as a leader and from what I understand it was him who challenged Cogs as leader with the goal of wanting better for the club. For mine if Taranto isn't in the leadership group it shows Leon is too focused on protecting Cogs as a leader.
 
captainMyCaptain said:
Taranto is clearly the guy who the younger players look to as a leader and from what I understand it was him who challenged Cogs as leader with the goal of wanting better for the club. For mine if Taranto isn't in the leadership group it shows Leon is too focused on protecting Cogs as a leader.
Click to expand...

I love that he (Taranto) came back early, he knows he had a poor year and is clearly trying to do everything to turn it around. That is integrity, that is leadership.
 
captainMyCaptain said:
Taranto is clearly the guy who the younger players look to as a leader and from what I understand it was him who challenged Cogs as leader with the goal of wanting better for the club. For mine if Taranto isn't in the leadership group it shows Leon is too focused on protecting Cogs as a leader.
Click to expand...

If this is correct, it goes a long way to explaining what's gone wrong at the club.

Leadership is one of those things in life that is felt. It works best when you want to look up to someone, not because you have to.

It's good that Taranto is seen as a leader by the younger players, but if he's challenged Coniglio in some way, that's significant, because we've invested an enormous amount of time, money and energy into Coniglio, yet he wasn't able to inspire the team when we needed him to. In fact, the collective will of the team fell apart and we ended up dropping him.

Leaders are born, not made.
 

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The AFL has a new Rights' deal with Foxtel & Telstra- $946m, for 2 years 2023-24. This is a record payment for the AFL- & Australian sport!

www.bigfooty.com

Tasmania - Congratulations on Tassie License. Mens team to enter 2028. Womens team TBA. Other details TBA 3/5

GO TO PART 2 of this thread: https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/congratulations-on-tassie-license-mens-team-to-enter-2028-womens-team-tba-other-details-tba-3-5-part-2.1357724/
www.bigfooty.com www.bigfooty.com
(Scroll to my posts#2912 & 2915).

This financial strength of the AFL is a further confirmation of GWS' current stability-& future prosperity (not that it was ever doubted by any AFL or Club Officials).
 
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Hey GWS fans. I hope it's ok I post in here.

In our latest podcast my mate and I do, we continue our 2020 club reviews discussing GWS.

From the 20.42min mark, we talk about the year the Giants had.
Give it a listen if you have a spare 20mins & wanting to consume some external opinions on your club this off-season.

Hope you enjoy it & have a happy new year.




- What worked, what failed, who deserves a pay rise & who needs a big 2021?
- Key list changes, our best 22 for each club, 2020 grade & 2021 projection

GWS @ 20.42
- Another Grand Finalist misses finals the following year
- Are the Giants too reliant on Toby?
- Pass marks to only Haynes, Whitfield, Perryman & Greene as big gap appears in BnF voting
- Still no plan B after Giants wave & face of club, J Cameron leaving big disappointments
- Coniglio dropped for must win in penultimate round
- Pressure on Preuss to perform & keep Mumford out
- Can Hogan get back to his best?
 

No Cookies | Daily Telegraph

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www.dailytelegraph.com.au www.dailytelegraph.com.au

GWS player Xavier O’Halloran was exposed to COVID danger site before testing negative

An AFL player is in COVID-19 isolation after he visited a Melbourne clothing store now listed as an exposure site.

GWS youngster Xavier O’Halloran is isolating in Sydney after visiting a Melbourne clothing store now on the COVID alert list.

The 20-year-old Victorian was in a South Melbourne sportswear shop on December 30 between midday and 12.45pm, when it was considered an exposed location.

O’Halloran had already tested negative by the time the Victorian Health Department added the store to its alert list on Tuesday night, as he prepared to return to training on Wednesday.
 
1. Daily Telegraph P. Rothfield 7.5.17

Rothfield said:-

. RL GR contact nos. declined "as much as 15%" in Sydney's west in 2017 only.

. "An unnamed NRL Official said 'At this rate, our game will be dead in 10 years' ".

. "Australian Rules appears to be the biggest threat to rugby league in Sydney's west".

. "There are now more Oztag & Touch football players than RL players in Parramatta".

. The NRL admits whatever it has tried is not working as its desperation to hang on to payers grows".





2. In 2017, the NRL commissioned a Report into Issues Effecting Rugby League Retention Rates.
It was provided by Griffiths Uni. Qld's Dr W. Usher et al, & highlighted "negative issues/cultural" problems, fear of injury, dissatisfaction with coaching, loss of interest in RL/loss of fun.

Warning- this Report has 126 pages!


In 2020 in Sydney's WS, GR contact RL still has FAR more regd. club & school comp. nos. than GR regd. AF in the WS- although GR AF has tripled its nos. since 2010.
In Sydney's NS, ES, & inner WS, GR AF has FAR more regd. club & school nos. than GR contact RL in the NS, ES, & inner WS.

It is clear that the NRL is very concerned still about the significant long term decline in GR male contact RL nos. in NSW, ACT, & Qld.- but its female GR contact nos. are having significant growth, off a small base.
 
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General Giant said:
Can’t read the article but the general gist I get is he is back.



Great news for the club
Click to expand...



Former Greater Western Sydney welfare manager Craig Lambert — the man at the centre of the Lachie Whitfield drugs saga — has returned to the club.
The highly-respected Lambert, who feared his time in football was over after being suspended by the AFL Commission for his role in the contentious 2016 affair, has taken on a part-time player development role under senior coach Leon Cameron.


Craig Lambert has a strong relationship with Giant Stephen Coniglio.
Lambert and his wife Melissa played a critical role in helping establish the AFL’s 18th club in rugby league heartland under foundation coach Kevin Sheedy.

But Lambert, the former Richmond and Brisbane midfielder, failed to get back into the industry after serving a 12-month ban for allowing Whitfield to sleep over at his family home in May 2015.

He and then Giants football boss Graeme “Gubby” Allan were accused of hiding Whitfield from drug testers, which both strongly denied.

Allan, now at St Kilda, also copped a one-year ban, while Whitfield was sidelined for six months.

Lambert played a key role in the establishment of the Giants.
Lambert has maintained close relationships with a number of Giants players including skipper Stephen Coniglio, star forward Toby Greene and Whitfield and was targeted in a bid to bolster the club’s “connection”.

Giants football boss Jason McCartney said Lambert’s return was critical.

“With all the downsizing in the soft cap, it was just so front of mind for us to get someone experienced in that development space,” McCartney said.

“It’s bloody hard to do in Sydney, but you’ve got a bloke like that just under your nose.

“Lambo was the perfect fit. The quality and the experience, regardless of the fact that he’s got the relationships from working here in the early days.

“He’s going to really bolster the development side. We’re rapt for him.”

Coniglio’s father, Sandro, last year said he was “saddened” by Lambert’s ongoing absence from the game.

“To lose a guy like that is a huge blow. To still be out of football, I find that hard to fathom,” he said.



“His knowledge, not only with football, but now with welfare is absolutely unbelievable.

“The boys respected (former GWS coach) Kevin Sheedy and whoever else, but I really believe that it was Craig who had a huge influence on them.”

Lambert also played a key role in the coaches box during Brisbane’s 2001-03 triple-premiership run under senior coach Leigh Matthews.

“He was incredibly valuable in the Lions era,” Matthews said in 2019.

“In modern footy when you talk about empathy and relationship building and all that sort of stuff — that was something he was very good at before it became fashionable.

More Coverage
Why footy needs forgotten Lambert
“He did the midfield coaching role but eventually moved into player welfare because he just had great ability in dealing with young players.

“Even before we had a job doing it, the Lamberts’ household in Brisbane was always a second home for the young blokes, whether it was Brad or Chris Scott, going that far back.”
 
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