Here Come the GIANTS: Recent Episodes
GWS GIANTS AFL Football Club
This is the story of the creation of the GIANTS. Over a 12 month period in the club's 10th year, award winning journalist and GIANTS recruiter Emma Quayle spoke to key figures in the rise of the GIANTS. The five-part series covers expansion, Team GWS, operation 'Get Sheedy', the team, the name, the colours, the song and the identity. The series features Andrew Demetriou, Dale Holmes, David Matthews, Graeme Allan, Stephen Silvagni, Mark Williams and current and past players.
It sounds like the fun stuff, but there were a lot of people to keep happy when the new club was choosing its name, colours and guernsey design. Meanwhile, a decision to set the club up like a US college campus played a huge part in creating its culture and building a lasting bond between the players, as the crucial hunt for a permanent home base began.
Episode features:
Graeme Allan, GIANTS’ first head of football
Dale Holmes, original GIANTS chief executive officer
Mel Lambert, who headed up the club’s welfare program with husband Craig
Andrew Demetriou, former AFL chief executive officer
David Matthews, current GIANTS chief executive officer
Phil Davis, original GIANTS recruit and inaugural co-captain
Tom Scully, former GIANTS player
Luke Power, former GIANTs player and inaugural co-captain
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Who would you target if you were building an AFL list from scratch and had big contract offers to throw around? Clubs expected the GIANTS to come after their older, established stars like expansion teams had in the past, but they had other ideas. They had their eye on long-term success from the start, even if it would make for a tough first few seasons.
Episode features:
Graeme Allan, GIANTS’ first head of football
Stephen Silvagni, GIANTS’ original list manager
Phil Davis, original GIANTS recruit and inaugural co-captain
Callan Ward, original GIANTS recruit and inaugural co-captain
Dale Holmes, original GIANTS chief executive officer
Tom Scully, former GIANTS player and original signing
Luke Power, former GIANTS player and inaugural co-captain
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Kevin Sheedy? Really? People were surprised and many were dismissive when the AFL pursued Sheedy - in his 60s and more than two years out of the game - to be the GIANTS’ first AFL coach. But he was seen as the perfect person to not only steer a young team of players, but sell the new club to a part of the country that had never loved AFL football. They just had to talk him into it.
Episode features:
Kevin Sheedy, inaugural GIANTS head coach
Mark Williams, inaugural GIANTS senior assistant coach
Andrew Demetriou, former AFL chief executive officer
Dale Holmes, original GIANTS chief executive officer
David Matthews, current GIANTS chief executive officer
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The GIANTS had to start somewhere, and it was a random collection of boys from Sydney, Canberra and country NSW – as well as a future Australian Test cricketer – who represented the new club in an AFL competition for the first time, as staff worked behind the scenes to secure the 18th AFL club licence and a very big name decided to cross over from the NRL. As coach Alan McConnell discovered, the kids were a long, long way from being AFL ready.
Episode features:
Alan McConnell, coach of Team GWS and the club’s first employee
Dale Holmes, original GIANTS chief executive officer
Cam Bernasconi, Team GWS player and current GIANTS Academy coach
Alex Carey, Team GWS player and current Australian cricket team member
Brett Hand, Team GWS assistant coach
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In 2008 the AFL announced it would be introducing two new teams, on the Gold Coast and in Sydney. In the first episode of this five-part series exploring the creation of the Greater Western Sydney GIANTS, find out why the league decided to expand in the middle of a global financial crisis, why they decided to move into 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.
Episode features:
Andrew Demetriou, former AFL chief executive officer
Dale Holmes, original GIANTS chief executive officer
David Matthews, current GIANTS chief executive officer
Tony Shepherd, inaugural and current GIANTS chairman
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.