GWS scandal makes fight for relevance in crowded Sydney sporting market even harder

GWS are a sporting club that no other franchise in Australia would want to be right now, a club struggling for a pulse up against a thriving NRL and dealing with a wholly avoidable scandal, writes David Riccio.

It’s always dangerous attempting to trade footy scandals.

I’ll swap you one NRL player who stole a bluetooth speaker from a club function to sell for his own profit on eBay, for two AFL players dressed like the World Trade Centre.

Deal, so long as you swap me the NRL player hiding under a bed from cops during Covid-restrictions, for the AFL player who threatened to stab a woman in the face with a chopstick at a Japanese eatery.

As I said, it’s an unenviable task comparing footy atrocities.

Typically though there’s a common thread with varying degrees of damage to the player, to the club and to the code.

Most footy clubs manage to clean-up the mess and move on.

But not this time.

GWS are a sporting club that no other franchise in Australia would want to be right now.

The GWS players can feel sorry for themselves all they want.

The manager of GWS captain Toby Greene can whinge all day about a $20,000 fine being too harsh.

Toby Greene copped a $20,000 fine for his part in the ‘Wacky Wednesday’ celebrations. Picture: Phil Hillyard

Because guess what, Greene isn’t the one left pleading down the phone line to whatever sponsors still want to be part of a club that is struggling for relevance in a huge Sydney sporting market.

The finger-pointing at the AFL over their sanctions is delusional.

Too harsh and over the top, has been the common thread from AFL fans.

Not harsh enough, is the truth of it, when you’re dealing with a club desperately trying to find a pulse in Sydney.

This latest scandal falls at the feet of the club’s leadership failure from the captain Greene and rips right up the chain to the CEO Dave Matthews.

And if you know Matthews like this column does, he’d be filthy.

He understands better than most the disrepute that GWS have suffered in the last 72-hours having been in charge from the day the Giants opened their doors out west.

The struggle to bleed into the veins of Sydney sports fans, who already have a thriving NRL competition with nine Sydney-based clubs, two A-League clubs, an NBL team in the Kings, the Swans and a rugby union side in the Waratahs to choose from, is as real now as it was back then.

If any sporting franchise in Sydney could ill-afford 13 of their players being punished for their involvement in pseudo Mad Monday event with the theme of “controversial couples”, it’s GWS.

Perhaps the only sort-of-good that has come from player Josh Fahey being suspended for four matches for dressing up as Jarryd Hayne and teammates Toby McMullin and Cooper Hamilton walking into the “private function” dressed as the World Trade Centre, is that people are actually talking about the footy club, that for the 13 years of their existence, has struggled to attract more than 11,000 fans on average to their home games.

Struggling for fans, the Giants can’t afford to alienate the supporters they do have. Picture: Phil Hillyard

By comparison, the NRL’s perennial disappointments, the Wests Tigers, who operate in the same corridors as GWS, have attracted an average of 13,326 fans to their home games over the same period, which includes the absurdity of playing out of four different stadiums.

The Giants’ low crowd figures are actually reasonable compared to the abysmal TV audience their games get in Sydney.

And their AFLW team is so anonymous they don’t even play in Western Sydney, hosting all their home games this season at Newtown’s Henson Park and Canberra’s Manuka Oval.

Last Sunday just 1061 fans turned up for their AFLW match against the Crows, and it’s a fair bet a large chunk of them were there to support Adelaide.

Only a fortnight ago, GWS ranked 17th of the 18 AFL teams for brand value.

According to Brand Finance Australia, who produce an annual report on the most valuable and strongest football club brands in Australia, the Giants brand is valued at $30 million dollars.

Ranked 18th in last position, the Gold Coast Suns are valued at just $2 million less than GWS at $28 million.

Putting that into context, the number one ranked team for brand value in the AFL is Collingwood at $145 million.

In a further indication of the Giants perilous plight, the same brand evaluation conducted in the NRL has the Gold Coast Titans ranked last of 17 clubs, but still worth more than the Suns or GWS at $33 million.

“Their (GWS and Suns) relatively low valuations and brand strength indexes reflect their struggle to compete with the long-established teams in the AFL,” Mark Crowe, managing director of Brand Finance Australia, wrote in his report.

“GWS and Gold Coast will need to focus on fostering a stronger connection with their local communities, improving on-field performances, and cultivating a more innovative approach to marketing and fan engagement to grow their brands.”

Good luck.

Originally published as GWS scandal makes fight for relevance in crowded Sydney sporting market even harder