An AFL Expansion Story | Why the Giants did better than the Suns

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Why the GWS Giants started much more strongly than the Gold Coast Suns when the AFL expanded to an 18 team competition.

[@TrueFootyAFL]

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[@jdod7074]

From being on the brink of quitting to quite literally churning out content almost every day, well bloody done mate

[@TrueFootyAFL]

Thanks mate I appreciate it! Loving it!

[@zachariahcole7488]

As someone who lives in Queensland the suns have done so much for grass roots participation in AFL. Since the suns entered in 2011 junior participation has gone through the roof at close to 300% This is something that goes unnoticed by people beyond our borders

[@davidlewis2464]

GWS having sheedy as their first coach was massively important. Someone who won flags in multiple eras, understands culture, how to get the best out of players and an absolute promoter of the club. Gold Coast should have done the same. Should have thrown the AFLs money at Williams or Blight or someone like that.

[@mackenzietoscan3602]

GWS have rivals with the Sydney Swans and Western Bulldogs with games in finals. Where Gold Coast- Brisbane is more friendly with more of the rivalry on the players

[@prowler6435]

Something not mentioned in this video was comparing the culture of the clubs initially. While GWS had a very strong, determined and happy culture, Gold Coast were filled with drug controversies, and bad treatment of players, making the younger players more wanting to leave and return to their home states.

[@PaladinCasdin]

Great video mate, as usual. Interesting how both clubs attitudes reflect the attitudes of their locations, with GCS going for the flashy marquee player as a headline (along with stunts like Karmichael Hunt), while GWS opted for more workhorse but ultimately reliable players without any real superstars in the early days (although some like Cameron obviously became so later).

[@samwest9444]

Don’t forget Israel Folau

[@PaladinCasdin]

@@samwest9444 Oof, I had forgotten about that. I still feel like Hunt was hyped more at the time though, but they were both definitely disasters.

[@charlesca5763]

I think the reason was the initial drafting strategy/recruiting. Gold Coast went for players like Ablett that were in their prime/a decent amount of years left whereas GWS went for young (Scully/Ward) and super old players who were basically already retired (Cornes, Brogan, Power). This meant that a lot of their younger players got immediate game time rather than being stuck behind players that were only going to be around 3-4 more years. This meant the 1st batch of GWS players were better which could then be on traded for better picks to develop more gun players. If you look at Gold Coast recent batch of draftees (King, Rowell, Anderson) they've got so much talent which I think is in part to early game experience

[@FootySausage]

It would be really interesting if GWS went first, because I think so much was about the draft, 2011 was a better draft than 2010. and the extra picks the GWS got. But also being 1st expansion club means you finish last in your first year but dont get pick 1, you get pick 4(traded in mini draft), and then the next 2 years GWS solidify their spoon and pick 1s again. That mini draft was a real leg up, got them picks 2, 3, 4, and 10 over 2 years. GWS did well to ignore AFL's goal to make them successful early on, all the allowances given were supposed to be used to get in established talent, but instead they just traded for more picks, knowing that middling success gets you no where, and its better to finish last for a few seasons get that top end talent and at the same time get games into those kids. In terms of Tasmania, the AFL would probably not allow them to do what GWS did, which is funny because it led to GWS being way more successful than it might have been.

[@robo_au]

Being a Suns supporter One of the major things gws done right from the first expansion announcement having experienced people running the club. Sheedy Matthews Sheppard to set the concrete foundations then everything else from your video is 100% Suns were riddled with injuries early on due to poor training and conditioning facilities and medical/fitness team/s

[@jacksonrobbins2288]

Personally think they have both proven to be failed experiments, Gold Coast more so. Membership bases are small, crowd numbers are low, player retention is still an issue that can only be solved by paying overs, both clubs still running at financial losses. Definitely feels like both teams would collapse if they had to stand on their own feet.

[@macgregordawson3164]

I wonder how the AFL felt about the rise of GWS when they upset Collingwood in a preliminary and denied them their dream 2019 grand final? Richmond vs Collingwood would have filled the MCG three times over, and while probably no one was beating Richmond that year, the game would have been a damn sight more competitive than the abomination we got.

[@TRBCL]

the reason was because gws built their team from the start whilst the suns singed aging stars

[@markp2122]

GWS signed plenty of aging stars

[@TRBCL]

@@markp2122 yeah but they still had a young core they built upon

[@sandrafowler6717]

I would not be surprised if the Giants win a Premiership before Fremantle, and that would be embarrassing because Freo has been in the AFL for over 20 years, I wouldn't be also surprised if Gold Coast won a Premiership before Freo too that's why GC went after Damian Hardwick.

[@ACDZ123]

Freo been there over 30 years not 20 lol ..even worse

[@drworm8444]

The giants should be in Bankstown and the suns should be in Southport.

[@laurens4561]

Why is Bankstown preferable? I’m not familiar with these areas, I have heard Blacktown isn’t the most impressive area though.

[@spindoctor6385]

You ask the question of what the AFL will learn from what they did with the two expansion teams. The answer is nothing. The AFL has never made a decision, a rule change or even a comment that they will admit was wrong. That is always the first essential step in learning from mistakes. Instead the bad decisions will be used as justification of why they will make the same mistakes over again. It is the same reason that whenever they make a rule change and directly lie, telling everyone that they are just trialling it, no matter the result, they claim it is a massive success and bully every accredited football "journalist" into parroting the same message and the rule is just accepted. The "Stand" rule is an obvious example. Everyone in the media just claim that it helped the game, made it more open, zero evidence is supplied and every un thinking moron just believes it. That is just one example, every rule change or "interpretation" change gets the exact same treatment. Ok the soap box is just here if anyone needs it

[@laurens4561]

I’m stunned Stuart dew was picked as coach, he was clearly not capable and carried himself in an unprofessional manner. Seemed to be attempting to be old school with the shouting etc without much else to offer.