Steve and Chris Mortimer fuming over GWS deal with Wagga Wagga City Council

STEVE and Chris Mortimer have labelled "pathetic" a decision by Wagga Wagga City Council to enter into a $300,000 funding deal with the GWS Giants.

FAVOURITE sons Steve and Chris Mortimer have labelled "pathetic" and a "waste of taxpayers' money" a decision by Wagga Wagga City Council to enter into a $300,000 funding deal with AFL club Greater Western Sydney.

The council is under fire for paying GWS $100,000 a year for three years in return for playing pre-season games and hosting promotions in the Riverina city.

The move has outraged the locals with rugby league and other sporting codes now demanding their slice of the funding pie.

NRL boss David Gallop has even bought into the controversy and will travel to Wagga Wagga today with Country Rugby League general manager Terry Quinn to seek answers at a meeting with the city's mayor Kerry Pascoe.

"I'll be going down there arm in arm with the CRL to try to get some answers as to why the council is making an investment of this type with the AFL with no similar support for our code,"Gallop said yesterday.

"It's an important issue for us. We've been big supporters of Wagga and the Riverina area for a long time.

"We've had community carnival games and trial games played down there on a regular basis and plenty of promotional visits by players and asked for nothing in return. The CRL funds junior academies in Wagga without any council support and our players and officials were among the first to visit the area to give flood relief assistance earlier this year.

"It's pretty clear rugby league is gettting the raw end of the deal here."

Steve Mortimer, one of Wagga's sporting icons now living in Sydney, can't fathom the decision.

"Why would you give that sort of money to an AFL club based in western Sydney and ignore everyone else,"he said.

"It shows an absolute total disregard and lack of respect for all the other sports in Wagga. It's a pathetic decision - it really is.

"You give up your time to go back to Wagga as often as you can to promote the city and help give it a profile. And it's not just me. Sterlo (Peter Sterling), Greg Brentnall, my brothers (Chris and Peter) - we've all put our hand up plenty of times to do our bit.

"But decisions like this make you wonder."

Chris Mortimer, a Wagga ratepayer whose son Ned plays Aussie rules locally, can't understand the move and said he's not alone.

"It's caused a hell of a drama down here," he said.

"Why would you give that sort of money to a big organisation like Greater Western Sydney that doesn't need it at the expense of other sporting organisations in the town?"

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