‘The NRL is stronger here than when the Giants started’: Swans, Giants want AFL to lift its game

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Frustrated Sydney club chiefs have pleaded with the AFL to lift its game in New South Wales, pointing out that Australia’s biggest state has lost significant ground to the NRL over the past decade as head office has repeatedly overlooked the harbour city for major football events.

While Swans chief Tom Harley pointed out it was “no coincidence” NSW was the only state going backwards in terms of Australian rules football given it was the only state repeatedly missing out on big fixtures, it has also emerged that tension exists between Giants and the AFL over the battle for supporters in western Sydney.

Compounding the growing disappointment directed from the Sydney clubs at the AFL has been the reluctance of the Giants – with by some measure the worst home-attendance figures in the competition – to hand over control to the competition on a $2 million western Sydney initiative approved by the commission late last year.

The soon-to-be unveiled AFL expansion hub, expected to be based in Parramatta, will no longer work exclusively with Greater Western Sydney but has expanded its original ambition and will now also work with Sydney, the Brisbane Lions and Gold Coast.

Speaking on the eve of the SCG derby between the Swans and the Giants, Sydney president Andrew Pridham has urged the competition to use some of the profits reaped from South Australia’s Gather Round to fund a major review into football in NSW, saying: “One-third of Australia’s population lives here and yet we’ve seen our marketing budget cut. Not even a fraction of the effort being put into Tasmania is being put here.

Giants skipper Toby Greene and Sydney co-captain Luke Parker.Credit: Eddie Jim

“The game as a whole is going backwards in NSW.

“Victoria has its form of Gather Round every week. It has the grand final, it has Anzac Day. Queensland and Western Australia have hosted grand finals and now South Australia has Gather Round for three more years, which we support. But the biggest market in Australia hasn’t had anything comparable.”

Added Greater Western Sydney boss Dave Matthews: “The NRL is stronger here now than when the Giants started.

“As someone who worked in head office in Docklands for 15 years I thought I understood Sydney. I had national responsibility for game development, but I didn’t realise how naive I was. Not only in understanding how different the market is here, but the difference between individual markets across Sydney.”

Matthews insisted he supported the expansion hub, saying: “I see the expansion hub being of vital importance to the growth of the code in NSW.”

“The NRL is stronger here now than when the Giants started. As someone who worked in head office in Docklands for 15 years I thought I understood Sydney. I had national responsibility for game development, but I didn’t realise how naive I was.”

So concerned is the AFL about the fading impact of the Giants that it has not ruled out moving all Sydney derbies to the SCG in future.

Last October the commission approved a $2 million special injection into growing the game in NSW after a detailed presentation from AFL commercial chief Kylie Rogers. Rogers has just appointed a marketing boss James Ellender to run the expansion hub with a seven-person marketing and data team based in Parramatta.

She said the aspiration was to work closely with broadcasters and local media and potentially create mini “gather rounds” based around Giants and Swans home games in a bid to change consumer habits in Australia’s most difficult and competitive market.

“It’s time to invest properly in NSW,” said Rogers. “We have seen what extra content can do for a market and we’re pleased that the commission has approved an additional investment to build a code awareness, club awareness and fandom awareness in New South Wales after a disappointing few years impacted by COVID and floods.”

While the Giants have fought to retain control of their marketing, date, consumer and participation initiatives, the club has continued to struggle to attract decent crowds. This year it is admitting children into home games for free.

Matthews also lamented the introduction of the bidding system for young talent in western Sydney. “We need to revisit previous decisions and take the bidding system out of western Sydney in particular,” he said. “A talented youngster from this area chooses Australian rules football over basketball or soccer and finds himself dragged from his home. That’s not stimulating growth in participation.

“I don’t want this to come across as complaining because we all need to do more. But we’ve lost some opportunities along the way. COVID helped accelerate growth in Queensland and delivered a grand final to WA and we had the state’s former sports minister pushing for five years in a row for a form of Magic Round in Sydney, which never happened.”

Matthews and Harley agreed there had been little if any special AFL-funded promotion for the SCG derby with Matthews saying of the Swans: “They make the grand final last year and their season opener is fixtured away against Gold Coast. And their first home game is Sunday lunchtime against Hawthorn.”

Harley pointed out that the AFL’s attempt at breaking the round-one attendance record fell short by 15,000 but could have proved the biggest in the game’s history had the two Sydney teams been better fixtured. The Giants hosted Adelaide in round one and attracted 6000 people while 13,000 went to the Suns-Swans clash.

“Since COVID when you look at marketing infrastructure we’ve had the hubs in south-east Queensland, grand finals at the Gabba and in Perth and now Gather Round. We’ve seen no bespoke activation into our market in that time and it’s no coincidence we are the only market, which hasn’t seen growth.

“I don’t want to absolve our responsibility because we can do more,” said Harley. “We have two million supporters across Australia and 65,000 members and we need to grow that.

“With a collaborative and coordinated effort we can create more of a splash. But if the question is has there been a marketing injection specific to the derby then it’s not there.”

Matthews pointed out that the the AFL’s boss in NSW no longer sat on Gillon McLachlan’s executive team, as had been the case in the case before the Giants were formed. And he, too, lamented the fixturing. “We need the big clubs here in the right slots. I would like to play Collingwood at Giants Stadium five years in a row in the same slot.”

The Sydney market is like no other for AFL clubs.Credit: The Age

While AFL bosses have privately conceded the fixturing of the Sydney clubs has long demanded more imagination, Pridham said the Sydney problem required “a more fulsome review involving the two club CEOs, the state league bosses and should include the Riverina and the ACT.

“The whole football ecosystem needs examining. I’m definitely not a fan of throwing money at the problem without a proper review. There’s football clubs folding, country clubs and junior clubs and there’s no adequate facilities.

“The Swans are doing really well, but we can do better. GWS can’t get enough people to go to their games. And you look at the impact of Anzac Day in Melbourne. If I’m putting my business hat on, it doesn’t make sense that we don’t try something different.

“Every year we say we’ve got to promote the start of the season better and we’ve never got it right. In Victoria and South Australia and Western Australia the game promotes itself. We keep doing the same thing here and we keep seeing the same outcome.”

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