GWS requests direct access to western Sydney AFL talent, Dave Matthews backs club culture
The Giants have made a bold draft request of the AFL, as CEO Dave Matthews stands by the club’s culture following the controversy that engulfed the club after their Mad Monday celebrations.
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Greater Western Sydney has boldly asked the league to hand the Giants direct access to AFL talent from the city’s west without having to bid for those players in a national draft.
The league is urgently attempting to fix plummeting numbers of Indigenous players on lists and has also seen the Giants draft only three players from western Sydney in 11 years.
GWS CEO Dave Matthews told the Herald Sun the Giants had lobbied the league for the change at a meeting with incoming GM of AFL NSW/ACT, Andrew Varasdi last Tuesday.
The Giants have western Sydney as part of their academy zone but want the league to allow them to directly list those western Sydney players separate to the draft process without giving up draft picks in exchange.
The western Sydney region contains the biggest Indigenous population in Australia, but has struggled for AFL talent apart from some rare players including Kieren Briggs and former Giant James Peatling.
The Giants have already had some areas including Albury stripped from their academy zone by complaining Victorian clubs who last November received better access to their own next generation academy talent.
AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon told AFL club CEOs last week western Sydney was a priority area for the league, and was demonstrated by hiring Andrew Varasdi last October as the new head of AFL in NSW and ACT.
“The competition for the hearts and minds of talented athletes in western Sydney is at its most fierce,” Matthews said.
“It’s the heartland of NRL Clubs built on local talent like Penrith Panthers, it’s got huge soccer and basketball participation.
“We have got to make sure AFL is on the menu as a career option generally, but also specific to Indigenous athletes. Our view which we have submitted to the AFL is we should have access but you have to remove the bidding system for a period of time.
“Because the bidding system is just an impediment to what we are all trying to do, which is deepen the AFL pool. There is so much choice for a young athlete so you have to give them a clear path to the AFL. We had a meeting with the AFL on Tuesday and you would leave the rest of the academy as it is.
“Western Sydney has to be a different solution to other parts of Australia, because it represents such a huge opportunity for the AFL.
“With Tasmania coming in and more teams in the AFLW and AFL the natural consequence is there is a dilution of the talent pool. Laura Kane makes some good observations about Indigenous pathways and there is a huge opportunity in western Sydney for Indigenous players.”
“Having spoken to Laura there is a massive population of Indigenous athletes in western Sydney and like Kevin Sheedy says, we have 800 jobs with an average salary of over $400,000. We have got to make sure the talented young boys and girls of western Sydney understand the career path there.”
AFL football boss Kane told the Herald Sun last week the league’s review of NGA and northern academy zones would see the league making decisions this year after asking for club feedback in recent months.
A TURBULENT OFF-SEASON
On Friday the Giants will meet Sydney in a low-key pre-season practice match far removed from the rollicking qualifying final last September that saw the Swans swamp Adam Kingsley’s side in an eventual six-point victory.
A week later Brisbane upset the Giants at home in the semi-final and the season was cooked after two losses by 11 combined points.
The club’s mad Monday resulted in an ill-advised series of costumes and skits that saw Josh Fahey banned for four weeks with Jake Riccardi, Joe Fonti, Toby McMullin, Harvey Thomas and Cooper Hamilton banned for two games.
Senior players including captain Toby Greene were fined for their lack of leadership in the matter.
It was an off-season that also Harry Perryman, Isaac Cumming and James Peatling depart as rivals hunted the Giants’ depth players with big offers and long term deals.
And yet Matthews, the club’s chief executive since 2011, remains proud of what this club has built and the culture that underpins it.
The club has just announced a sponsorship with ASX-listed property group Mirvac with more key announcements to come.
He says the club’s capacity to bring in Essendon veteran Jake Stringer is a reminder of the club’s history of improving players with its culture and leadership.
“I think we have had a strong track record of success. And people talk about Jesse Hogan (thriving with us) but it’s more than that. It’s Shane Mumford coming across from the Swans. It’s Stevie J (Johnson) leaving Geelong. I think we are a good place to play footy and Sydney is a good place to live.
“Jesse (Hogan) is really happy. When Jesse joined the club he essentially found a new lifestyle for himself. Jake has been really popular with the group, he’s training well, he’s got a great relationship with the coach, a great relationship with Toby, who he lived with for a period of time when he first got here.
“With Heath Shaw there was a difficult ending at Collingwood, Geelong retired Stevie J, Mumford got squeezed out as a Swan. So we are a good place to play and there are good opportunities here for players like Jake.”
The GWS Mad Monday controversy saw club boards across the AFL’s 18 clubs work to quietly limit or even end end-of-season festivities but Matthews will specify only that the club has put in place better “guardrails” for players out celebrating together.
He is insistent the suspensions will not distract from anything the club is building this season.
“The topic is closed off for us. We are a 14-year-old club. We haven’t had any major issues at these events before. And there are a series of decisions that were made which were regrettable. And they have been dealt with and we all move on. We know we have a strong culture, we know we are well-led and there’s just a few little guardrails we have to put in place from time to time.
“We haven’t had a history of systemic issues. We have got strong membership, we got to 25,000 quicker than at any time before and we are still a strong brand.
“It all gets back to what is acceptable and what our standards and values are and there was an immediate acknowledgment across the group that some things shouldn’t have happened but from what 2025 offers us it hasn’t been an issue. We are proud of what we have developed and at the time it was pretty regrettable.”
Of that straight sets exit, Matthews says: “You want to put yourself in those positions and there is some disappointment about how those finals finished. But it doesn’t mean we have lost confidence in what we have got. We have got a very, very good coach. We have got a good leadership group and great depth of talent and character. The pre-season has been really strong. We have got a lot to look forward to and we are just hungry to keep challenging. If anything it makes the group hungrier. Let’s keep pushing and challenge again.”
BUILDING A NEW EXPANSION CLUB
As a veteran of an expansion club Matthews believes the AFL will get the list build balance right but stresses the importance of an elite training facility built early.
He says the Breakfast Point accommodation that saw the young players living together was also an early masterstroke from coach Kevin Sheedy and football boss Graeme Allen.
“There is a balance and listening to current discussions there seems to be an emphasis on needing to competitive immediately. I think you have to earn the right to be competitive, rather than have it handed to you, in many ways Tasmania will be easier than building the Giants” he said.
“We are very supportive of Tasmania coming in. You have to get the fundamentals in place as quickly as possible and the training and administrative base for the Giants and Suns probably took too long to get in place, which affects retention. Clubs were training out of portables. So you have to have the facilities in place and a workplace where you are turning up every day happy with the environment you are in.”
Originally published as GWS requests direct access to western Sydney AFL talent, Dave Matthews backs club culture
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