GWS Giants director of coaching Alan McConnell hails the club’s resilience

The first-ever employee of Greater Western Sydney, Alan McConnell, makes the case why the Giants are the most resilient AFL club.

Alan McConnell insists the Giants boast resilience like no other club in the competition.

The director of coaching – the club’s inaugural employee – is celebrating 10 years in orange and charcoal this week and sees a still-growing outfit digging deep as it faces unique challenges.

And as for that first flag, it’s an odd case of never been closer yet never further away.

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While the club is approaching 30,000 members, it is still in a different league to long-established AFL outfits boasting huge matchday attendances.

It has led to the question whether a club can win a flag without a hefty supporter base.

“What I think is that our players probably need to be the most resilient playing group in the competition,” McConnell told The Daily Telegraph.

“And that’s for a whole myriad of reasons. We don’t have the same scrutiny post a poor performance of a Melbourne or an Adelaide or a West Australian team might have.

“Equally on game day we don’t have the same number of people yelling and screaming as some of the other bigger clubs might have, at this point in time.

“In that context it requires us to be perhaps more resilient and mentally challenges us, it creates, it challenges us probably more than any other team in the competition I guess.”

Alan McConnell is the Giants’ inaugural employess. Picture: Getty Images

GWS is well-placed for a tilt at the flag but McConnell says that brings its own pressures.

“I don’t know about other years but what I would say is I feel like we’ve never been closer but at the same time as a coach you never feel like you’ve been further away,” he said.

“Because the closer you get sometimes the further away you can feel that you are. When you are in a coaching position that’s actually the way it looks.

“The closer you get to the pointy end the more it appears that you need to be able to do. And the harder it is to find the next edge.”

Originally published as GWS Giants director of coaching Alan McConnell hails the club’s resilience