Giant lurve never dies

This is a statement of intent.

I jumped off a very good club – Geelong – in order to do whatever I can to promote the game in Sydney through GWS. The Giants are the perfect vehicle in which to take the pioneering work of the Swans to the next level, and to make our outstanding indigenous code a pre-eminent aspect of sports in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.

Today changes nothing.

In a season where percentages will determine the placings in the top 4 – and possibly for the entire top 10 – our being essentially a team of very young rookies will inevitably make us victims of very good teams basically playing in the crunch part of their year for the whole shebang.

This was the first game this season that I missed (I’ve been pretty crook, so I basically slept through it), but there is no way that I am giving up on this team and this club. The first couple of years of any expansion into a league as brutal as the AFL is not going to be for the faint hearted, and when I finally decided that the Giants were to be my focus in footy, it was a committment that I made in full knowledge of my needing to stick with it come hell or high water.

Trolls will appear in ever increasing numbers on every site even distantly associated with GWS, and the naysayers are going to have a picnic this week. But there is absolutely nothing that they can say, write or smoke signal which will have even the slightest impact on the depth and intensity of my passion for our bold new adventure.

In a couple of years, those of us who have stuck fast for GWS will go troll hunting, looking for these petty opportunists and the faint of faith in order to stare them in the eye and fair dinkum serve every piece of trash straight back at them. You can’t make the highest quality steel without going through the furnace, and we have some pretty high quality ore which is currently going through its trial by fire these days.

I will be at Skoda next week, knowing full well that Adelaide are as desperate for a percentage boost every bit as much as was Hawthorn. But I am a Greater Western Sydney Giant now to my core, and today changes nothing, nada, nix, not a sausage!

We will succeed.

I believe!

GO GIANTS!

About Richard Naco

We are Geelong.

Comments

  1. Jamie Simmons says

    Richard, though I had my doubts initially about drafting old heads like Cornes, Power and Brogan into the ranks I now think it was a masterstroke. A developing side is as much about psychology as it is about physical prowess and there’s no shortage of experience down there at Skoda. I dare say they’re better placed to handle a tough day at the office like yesterdays, than say a Gold Coast is.

  2. Rick Kane says

    Good on you Mr Naco, the Giants need supporters like you to build the base. Coming in, on the ground floor, sets you up for the decades to come watching Australian Rules take root in such foreign soil as western Sydney as the team itself grows in skills, confidence and physical size.

    I was at the game and the Giants showed promise. Yes, they are young and inexperienced but that will not be the case next year or in years to come. The comparison between the Giants playing the MCG and Gold Coast taking on the Cats on the same day should not be ignored. One year further on in its development, Gold Coast are playing much more competitive footy (against last year’s Premiers). They may not have the wins on the board but that will come in time.

    The Giants supporter base at the ground, while small, stood out. As an Oranje man, I can’t knock fans that employ the colour orange as the main attraction. And when the Giants goaled the fan base yelped and hollered. And the colour orange danced behind the big sticks. It looked great. Not sure about the flag. It looked like a flag from an Eastern European country, maybe one invented by Sasha Baron Cohen.

    For the Hawks it was a training run and as a Hawks fan it was a delightful afternoon. Yes, we got 14 percentage points as a result. Very happy about that. And the way the Hawks played should underline how all teams should play the Giants. That is the best way the Giants will learn how to play AFL.

    Cheers

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