Your club's identity

Nice over reaction. It was just an observation. I reckon the AFL would be incredibly worried that of the 2 million people that live in Western Sydney, less than 5000 have been converted into members of the club. A 0.0025% market penetration coming into their 7th season. I understand that these things take time, but it looks like it will take a while, a generation perhaps.

GWS had approximately 9,000 more members in 2017 than the GCS with the GCS being in the competition 1 year longer. Brisbane on the other hand had only (approximately) 400 members more than GWS in 2017, with the Lions having 20 seasons in the competition plus 3 AFL premierships in that time based on the merger of two teams. With the membership growth stats over 2017 showing GWS at +37% (approx) growth compared to a -9.2% (GCS) and -8.36 (Lions), I dont see any concern with growth for GWS at this time.

But back on track with the topic, the western suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne have traditionally been seen as the blue collar areas.
 
Apr 13, 2006
32,868
77,033
The Bitter End
AFL Club
Port Adelaide
i identify as an apricot slice
images (7).jpeg
 

Timewaster

Club Legend
Jul 1, 2014
1,136
1,837
AFL Club
Carlton
WCE are pushing this story in Perth, and it seems like a weird one. Making out they were a small, struggling outfit bravely making their way in a hostile league isn't how I remember it.

They were built by the WAFC with the full support of the VFL, they'e always had support, money and success. Why play at being a small, local club with some cheap ripoff of the Shinboner Spirit? An establishment image like the MFC would be much more honest.

Sure they were a bit plastic at first, but they'e turned into a successful organisation that many other clubs would love to copy.
 

Matchu

Norm Smith Medallist
Apr 12, 2007
7,751
7,041
AFL Club
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WCE are pushing this story in Perth, and it seems like a weird one. Making out they were a small, struggling outfit bravely making their way in a hostile league isn't how I remember it.

They were built by the WAFC with the full support of the VFL, they'e always had support, money and success. Why play at being a small, local club with some cheap ripoff of the Shinboner Spirit? An establishment image like the MFC would be much more honest.

Sure they were a bit plastic at first, but they'e turned into a successful organisation that many other clubs would love to copy.
It's the agenda the club wants to push and the belief held by WC supporters. Admitting you had it pretty easy at the start (retrospective or not) would take the shine off their two flags in the early 90s. Here is a thread that thoroughly discusses West Coast's entry into the AFL if you're interested.
 

Timewaster

Club Legend
Jul 1, 2014
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Yeah, but their story is interesting enough for honesty to be the rest way.

Created because the VFL wanted cash and the WAFC wanted a vehicle for WA's expansion. Always expertly run, well-supported and successful.

This is no different to SMFC moving for cash, or NMFC merging with West Melbourne to improve their chances of being accepted by the VFL. Didn't Hawthorn get in simply because they had a good ground?

Many clubs have unglamorous beginnings, there's no need to just make stuff up (especially when the 80s are easy to research and the truth is very well known).
 

Mayes2Gray

Club Legend
May 18, 2014
1,267
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AFL Club
Port Adelaide
Having lived in Perth for a while, Freo supporters in general seem grimier than West Coast supporters. I think also tha Fremantle’s locality isn’t really a huge factor - I’m thinking most of the rich families in Dalkeith/City Beach/Cottesloe adopter the ‘State’ team when it came in, whereas it wasn’t so readily adopted by those in lower socioeconomic areas who in my experience clung to their WAFL allegiances for longer.

Speaking generally, I think south of the river has a 60%/40% Freo/West Coast split and generally the West Coast supporters are the higher class of people.

North of the river id suggest the support split is closer to 15%/85% and I don’t really have a formed opinion on the relative “class” of the supporters.

Edit: There are a huge amount of autocorrects in that post, so apologies for things that don’t make sense.
I always under the impression its based on which team is doing better at the time. As a kid in school the eagkes were up and going while freo were piss poor, then when my youngest sister was in school, during the time of freo being a bit betterthan the eagles, the kids all had the freo colours. Am I wrong in noticing this?, the single household team isnt as big of a thing as it once was from my experience.
 

Cmarsh

Norm Smith Medallist
Apr 23, 2012
7,697
10,426
NSW
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GWS
Footy has been seen to be an egalitarian sport with, generally speaking, little class difference in who it appeals to.

Contrast this with Rugby league and Rugby union, where class divide has long been seen to be a difference in the spectator base between those two codes.
 

Cmarsh

Norm Smith Medallist
Apr 23, 2012
7,697
10,426
NSW
AFL Club
GWS
Cheers for that. Interesting (and probably worrying) that Blacktown, Parramatta, Canada Bay, Penrith, Macarthur and the Hills (All true Western Sydney, although Hills debatable) only makes up just over 3,500 members. Seems to be a long way to go to win the hearts and minds of the region you are meant to represent and are based.

Also calling it the Orange Army is a bit disingenuous. More like the Orange Division.
Putting it into context with other codes, ie Western Sydney NRL clubs like Penrith, Canturbury, Wests Tigers and Parramatta, each have similar or smaller membership numbers to GWS despite these NRL clubs been long established in Western Sydney. Their membership penetration in Western Sydney for each of them would actually be quite similar to GWS. This is assuming you try to quantify "hearts and minds" into an objective number like memberships in the area.
 
Mar 24, 2017
5,019
5,859
Blackburn
AFL Club
Hawthorn
Other Teams
Box Hill Hawks
What is each Melbourne club historically associated with?

Working class
North
Collingwood
Footscray
Richmond
South Melbourne

Middle class
Hawthorn
St Kilda
Essendon
Carlton
Fitzroy

Upper class
Melbourne
 
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