LIKE most Victorian sport lovers, I follow the Melbourne Storm, but only in passing.
We all know Cameron Smith, but not many other players, particularly now that Billy Slater has retired and Cooper Cronk has switched to some mob up in Sydney.
For all their sustained success since entering the NRL, it’s been a tough sell for the Storm to really penetrate with sports fans in a mad Aussie Rules state.
We like them, but do we really love them?
It’s the same challenge AFL teams face in the northern states, where rugby league is king.
- Flea embracing excitement of AFL grand final week
- AFL grand final: Sunraysia fans say it’s Tiger time
- Derek Eggmolesse-Smith soaking up Richmond’s success
- GWS fan in Tiger town hopes for AFL grand final glory
For all the AFL’s marketing spend, capturing that market remains a battle.
And there is no greater battleground than in the multicultural hotspot of western Sydney, where eight years ago the AFL plonked a new team smack bang in the middle of four NRL clubs and a popular A-League soccer team.
On Saturday, the Greater Western Sydney Giants play off in their first AFL grand final, and it’s an achievement not to be underestimated.
After years of playing in front of a virtually empty stadium, copping hidings with a young developing group of players, somehow a club with heart has been forged.
In recent months, star players who were offered big money to return to the football heartland of Victoria, have decided to stay.
Players like Steven Coniglio, Josh Kelly and Jeremy Cameron may not yet be the household names in Sydney that Smith, Slater and Cronk became in Melbourne, but winning a grand final will help.
These players have committed to a cause, in a way that no Gold Coast player has ever really done.
And credit must go to the organisation as a whole.
Behind the scenes, the Giants have been smart in building their brand nationally.
A few years ago, they struck an unprecedented partnership with my former club, Geelong West-St Peter’s. GWSP became GW Giants but there was more to the deal than just a name change.
A Giants academy was formed for young Geelong players and there was also a link with the Giants Superleague netball team. The AFL club also opened its doors on a number of levels, helping with coaching development, as well as providing new jumpers.
They flew Geelong West officials to tour their facility, talk with players and coaches, and watch games in western Sydney.
Speaking to the Geelong West officials after those visits, they were so impressed with the culture of togetherness the Giants had established. They described it as feeling like a big country footy club, where after the game, players came in the rooms for a drink with family members, friends and supporters.
While many footy fans in Victoria may lament the advantages and concessions the Giants have received in the AFL draft, I look at it differently.
Eight years a group of young footballers were thrown together in a foreign AFL land with administrators and coaching staff who also had to start from ground zero.
They were unloved, ridiculed, even hated.
But it didn’t destroy them, as it seems to have done to the Gold Coast Suns.
Instead it has galvanised them. They have developed an ‘us against them’ mentality.
And if Victorians hate them, all the better, for at least that makes them relevant in the AFL landscape.
But don’t fear Victorian sports fans, even if the new kids on the block come to the MCG and upset Richmond, all is not lost.
The mighty Storm play in the NRL preliminary final Saturday night. Go Cameron Smith.
