Giant Name Leaves Little Room for Inspiration

By Sasha Lennon

I knew this would happen.  It’s taken me ten years or more to accept ‘The Dockers’.  I still can’t digest ‘The Power’, and I can’t even say ‘The Suns’ out loud but now we have the GWS Giants!  What happened to all the animals?

Have we run out of good names?  Surely the Panthers or Wolves or even the Falcons would be more apt.  Fitzroy are no longer the Gorillas as far as I’m aware.  Why not take that away from them too? 

With all due respect to our American cousins, the Greater Western Sydney name sounds well, too American.  I do like the colours though.

What do you think?  Can we suggest a better name for the new franchise?  Perhaps there is a cooling off period and it’s not too late to make a change.  The Mayblooms is available.

Comments

  1. I’m with you Sasha (although I like the name “Dockers” for Freo). It’s not quite an animal name, but with the letters GWS as their initials, I reckon they could have chosen something like the “GROWLERS”. It incorporates the G, W and S, doesn’t sound wimpy or overly-American and could be applied to a number of animals.

    But we all know what the Marketing/”Focus Group” wankers would have said to that idea…

  2. And I’m still trying to figure out what a “Blue” is. Other than a mistake. Actually, now that I think about it, that’s quite appropriate… (Sorry, JB.)

  3. David Latham says

    Blues is a state of the heart, someitmes of other parts of the anatomy, but all pointing in a disappointing direction.

    I’d like to have seen the new teams branch out into the genre of pony’s, unicorns and horsies.

  4. Horrible – sounds like a basketball franchise. The colours look like an accountant’s letterhead. I dread the song.

    They could have been called the “Northern Hairy Nosed Wombats”. Apparently they used to roam far and wide in NSW.

  5. Looks like we have found the new UGLIEST jumper in the AFL.
    Just nasssttyyyy!!

  6. Phil Dimitriadis says

    Got to agree with Dips and Danni. Eyesore all round. Charcoal for f***s sake?

    Dips I’m getting worried that we are becoming more agreeable with each other. Something’s not right!

  7. It would have been too much to hope for an appropriate local name or something vaguely in the general Australian tradition. It’s going to be a plastic team so let’s give them a plastic name like the Giants – perhaps Sheeds is planning to have side with no small forwards or small mid-fielders.

    Greater Western Sydney is even sillier. Can you imagine a crowd chanting “Greater Western Sydney – clap, clap. clap.” How about “Go Greater Western Sydney” or “Carn the GWS” I can’t imagine it either. They should have called themselves, either West Sydney or even Blacktown!

    The jumper is ugly, mostly because of the cockeyed “G” on the front. In itself, Orange and Dark Gray is no worse than some of the older colour combinations, brown and gold for example.

  8. Pamela Sherpa says

    I love the jumper -the charcoal and orange are beautiful colours and the white G looks simple, yet dynamic and uncluttered.I think the design is good – far better than the spilt milk /paint brush accidents that some teams have for alternative jumpers
    I think in time they’ll just be referred to as the Giants and if they play good footy it won’t really matter what they are called. Western Wolves would have had a nice ring to it . I’m just hoping the song is decent. The Suns one had no oomph and passion.

  9. Steve Healy says

    Giants is certainly too american, the Suns at least makes sense relative to the location but that too is American.

    The jumper looks far too dull, it should be brighter orange and black! I do like that they chose orange though.

    GWS Fuschias is what they shouldve been called

  10. I think it is a fine tribute to one of the worst performing NRL teams ever…

    Personally, I would have been more likely to back them if they were called the Black Snakes and all players had to have a snake tattoo coiling around the left bicep. (Including you Folau!)But that probably won’t get past the focus groups unless they were actaully made up of people from Western Sydney.

  11. #7 – Phil – The Giants jumper looks eerily like the logo in the top right hand corner of this very page (underneath Penrite).

    We’ll never completely agree. I still f…..g hate Collingwood.

  12. Phil Dimitriadis says

    Dips,

    you may have a case for infringement of copyright there! Geez, it is similar.

    I thought you would say “I still hate f…..g Collingwood” Your word placement shows that you may have unconsciously relented…just a tad.

  13. Phil – ha ha good one. I knew a bloke who used to end all of his sentences with “f…in”.

    I this instance he would say “I f…in hate Collingwood f…in”. What would you make of that?

  14. Has anybody else noticed that the end of the G actually looks like a blue tap?

  15. I like the Spiders, or the Redbacks. Thanks Alex.

  16. Phil Dimitriadis says

    #14 Dips, that certainly makes you sound more Slavic…F****n

  17. Clearsighted says

    Great jumper! Great name! Great promo! Great money! All great, great, great! Like Sheedy’s article earlier in the year (and we must remember that he is in the employ of the AFL to promote this new team and their expanding enterprise), where he stated that the only way to beat Geelong was to plunder them of players, staff and coaches. Seems to have worked. The GCS have followed his advice with the AFL’s blessing (remember Gaz, featured in a GC paper, in a GC jumper mid season – nothing to do with the AFL, of course), and the Essendon football club remaining true to their historic form in their dealing from under the table, and their prodigal son behaving like a husband to be in September taking calls from his lover on the side in July. All so murky. All so ‘big business’ (isn’t that the excuse expounded?), all so deserving of a shit song.

  18. Ghastly colours for the guernsey. I actually suggested the Greater Western Spiders during their online ‘name the team’ period. Small and hairy and no-one likes them. Plenty of Aussie animal names they could have picked. The Taipans for example.

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