In 2008 the AFL announced it would be introducing a second team into NSW.
But where would the team be based?
What would they be named?
Where would the talent come from?
And how would they engage the community to support this new team?
Produced by award-winning journalist and GIANTS recruiter Emma Quayle, Quayle takes us through the formation of the GIANTS, sitting down with the key leaders involved in the inception of the club including former AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou, inaugural GIANTS CEO Dale Holmes and current GIANTS CEO David Matthews and Chairman Tony Shepherd.
In the first episode of this five-part podcast series, find out why the league decided to expand in the middle of a global financial crisis, why they settled on Greater Western Sydney, what resistance was met from other clubs and why no-one gave up on the chase for Tony Shepherd as the new club’s first chairman.
Speaking to Emma Quayle in the first episode, former AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou explains the varied factors that made Greater Western Sydney the “perfect” spot for an AFL expansion team more than a decade ago, and why it will thrive in the decades ahead.
“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.
“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.
“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."
The first episode of the Here Come the GIANTS podcast also features original GIANTS Chief Executive Officer Dale Holmes, current GIANTS chief executive officer David Matthews, and inaugural and current GIANTS chairman Tony Shepherd.
