GWS determination to break Collingwood hoodoo fuelled by Eddie McGuire’s ‘falafel’ jibe
IT’S been six years since Eddie McGuire’s “land of the falafel” jibe but the Giants haven’t forgotten or forgiven. This weekend is all about revenge over their second biggest rivals.
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GWS boss David Matthews has labelled the club’s winless record against Collingwood a major disappointment and says it’s time the Giants rectify the situation.
The Magpies remain only one of two sides the fledgling Giants are yet to defeat since joining the AFL in 2012.
However, Matthews’ desire to see GWS break their Collingwood drought is also fuelled by long running tensions between his club and Pies president Eddie McGuire.
“Not having beaten Collingwood in six years is one of the major disappointments so far,” Matthews said. “It drives our players.
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“It’s our second biggest rivalry in the competition. As a club we’ve been quietly been ticking off a checklist in our heads.
“We beat the Swans at the SCG for the first time this year, we won at Adelaide Oval last year for the first time, we won a final.
“We haven’t beaten Collingwood and have to rectify that.”
Privately the Giants haven’t forgotten nor forgiven McGuire for his persistent attacks on the club that started six years ago with calling GWS heartland the “land of the falafel”.
McGuire’s infamous jibe was in response to inaugural GWS coach Kevin Sheedy’s taunts that he would steal Collingwood superstars like Scott Pendlebury and Travis Cloke.
The Magpies president’s clearly meant that it would be the Giants players who would be ripe for the picking as their recruits would tire of living in ethnically-diverse Western Sydney, or as McGuire described it, the “land of the falafel”.
More recently McGuire has been leading a successful campaign to force the AFL to reduce the size of the Giants’ academy recruitment zone along the NSW and Victoria border.
“When they are the biggest club in the league and we are the smallest there is always going to be some niggle,” Matthews said.
Collingwood have also poached three of the Giants best young talents in Adam Treloar, Taylor Adams and last year Will Hoskin-Elliott.
Treloar is out of the clash between the two at Spotless Stadium with an ankle injury but has been a revelation since moving home to Melbourne last year finishing second in the Copeland Trophy and equal fourth in the Brownlow Medal.
Adams and Hoskin-Elliott have also been successes in black and white.
But GWS didn’t end up empty-handed from their dealings with the Magpies, from the Treloar trade they landed Jacob Hopper in the 2015 draft and Tim Taranto the following year when traded up from the Pies pick No. 7 in 2016.
They also snared dual All Australian defender Heath Shaw in a straight swap for Adams in 2013. Shaw has been huge for the fledgling team adding enormous personality to his new club as well as his on field skills.
“All three of the ex-Giants at Collingwood are fine young men,” Matthews said. “Adams was the first situation where we went after an experienced player at an established club at the height of his career (Heath Shaw) but we’re going to have to give up a 200-game player.”
In another twist, GWS midfielder Lachie Whitfield returns today after a six month ban for bringing the game into disrepute. One of them men at the middle of the scandal was former GWS and then Collingwood football manager Graeme Allan, who was banned for 12 months for his role in the 2015 drug test incident.
The trade wars are one thing but it’s the scoreboard which ultimately settles all arguments and so far it’s been a one sided contest with the Pies winning all five which has included three victories at Spotless Stadium.
Originally published as GWS determination to break Collingwood hoodoo fuelled by Eddie McGuire’s ‘falafel’ jibe
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