Former AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou tips GWS Giants to be ‘much bigger’ than Gold Coast Suns

A former AFL chief executive has lit a fire in the Giants-Suns debate, more than a decade on from their establishment

Coach of the Giants Leon Cameron with his players (AAP Image/Julian Smith) NO ARCHIVING, EDITORIAL USE ONLY

Former AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou is adamant the GWS Giants will one day become a powerhouse club which dwarfs anything fellow expansion club Gold Coast develops in to.

Demetriou’s comments feature in Greater Western Sydney’s special five-part podcast Here Come The Giants, which chronicles the creation of Giants from an idea to a must-have team for the AFL.

The two new clubs effectively received the green light at the same time, given AFL bosses didn’t want to have a bye each weekend and were keen to present nine-game rounds for the broadcast negotiations which helped net the league’s first billion-dollar deal.

Executives from the cashed-up AFL felt the global financial crisis was the ideal time to add teams to the competition in NSW and Queensland to take on the rugby codes and soccer and become a truly “national” game.

This ambition cruelled any chance Tasmania had at the time of scoring its own AFL team, a battle that is ongoing.

Demetriou believes the varied factors that made Greater Western Sydney the “perfect” spot for AFL expansion more than a decade ago will also see it thrive in the decades ahead.

AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou with GWS Giants players Phil Davis, Callan Ward and Jeremy Cameron pic. Phil Hillyard

“If you’re trying to start a team in a market; the things you would look for are large population, socio-economic factors, diversity, growth opportunities, Indigenous population and an area that had some massive growth potential,” Demetriou said.

“When you looked at Greater Western Sydney; you had a population of two to three million people.

“I think the last count that I remember when I was at the AFL; they had 60-odd languages being spoken in the region, a large Indigenous population, (there was a) huge growth corridor in Greater Western Sydney and a huge area of growth in socio-economic terms as well.”

The Suns entered the AFL in 2011, while the Giants followed a season later, but it’s Greater Western Sydney that Demetriou is far more bullish about.

The clubs’ on-field results are heavily in the Giants’ favour, including five finals appearances to none and them reaching the 2019 grand final, but the ex-AFL head honcho’s vision is beyond kicks and marks.

Demetriou even said it was “a no-brainer” to introduce a team in the west of Sydney.

GWS Giants coach Kevin Sheedy is congratulated by AFL boss Andrew Demetriou in the rooms before his last home game as coach pic. Phil Hillyard

“Greater Western Sydney, even though it didn’t know anything about AFL football and it wasn’t an AFL market; it ticked all the boxes. It was the perfect place to put an AFL team,” he said.

“Out of anywhere in Australia where you wanted to put a new team; it was the one that ticked all the boxes and had the most potential.

“I’ve often said this is a 20-to-30-year build in Greater Western Sydney, but it’ll be a very, very big club one day – much bigger than the Gold Coast Suns will ever be.

“Gold Coast will be a small, niche club in a small, niche market ...

“Greater Western Sydney, tapping into the multicultural diversity, women, Indigenous, growing socio-economic backgrounds, broadcasting, two to three million people – you couldn’t get any better than that.”

>>> The first episode of Here Come The Giants will be released on Thursday, coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the club’s first AFL game