I am, and have always been, a Sydney-sider. Unusually for a Sydney-sider, I love AFL and, perhaps even more unusually, I am a passionate Melbourne Demons supporter.

I have taken a lot of heat over a long, long time from a lot of people in Sydney for supporting the Dees. In particular, from quite a few of my mates who support the Swans.

Along with another friend of mine who's a Dons supporter, I was going to buy a GWS membership this year - essentially to help the AFL get a foot hold in Sydney's west, but also to get in the face of my Swans supporting mates.

I am not the only person in Sydney to have entertained doing this. Many people who live in Sydney, but support clubs other than the Swans, may also have entertained doing this to support the growth of the code.

BUT - given Sheedy's irreverent and idiotic rhetoric of late, and the fact that GWS is playing hard ball on young players like Tom Scully, they can get stuffed. Truly stuffed.

So Kevin - you've cost your club one less membership this year. Not that I would ever truly support any club other than the MFC, I was going to assist in giving GWS a much needed leg up this year - but no more.

Perhaps something these idiots have failed to consider?! Having said that, Sheedy doesn't strike me as a particularly considered man or thinker.

In short, GWS's approach to poaching young players has some genuine downside that I suspect they've not even started to think about. And perhaps this is something they should have thought about, giving that they are throwing unlimited cash at marketing at the moment ...

Ron..being realistic its an erroneous if likeable argument. Yours nor anyone else's membership bought in the early stages out of altruism would not lead to anything sustaining or meaningful for the club.. Youre a Demon and not anouit to defect to the Giants. As you state they have bags of money for a few years. They are going to want to home grow thier mebers and supporters.

Many Sydneysiders might actually relish the shenanagans of Sheedy as he sticks it up the Melbourne clubs.

Hes not losing sleep ..trust me.

Ron..being realistic its an erroneous if likeable argument. Yours nor anyone else's membership bought in the early stages out of altruism would not lead to anything sustaining or meaningful for the club.. Youre a Demon and not anouit to defect to the Giants. As you state they have bags of money for a few years. They are going to want to home grow thier mebers and supporters.

Many Sydneysiders might actually relish the shenanagans of Sheedy as he sticks it up the Melbourne clubs.

Hes not losing sleep ..trust me.

Perhaps you're right, belzebub - but it's cost them one membership and it irks me that I can't now attend a Sydney derby and cheer for GWS against the Swans, if only to be able to annoy the vanilla Swans supporters ...

Perhaps you're right, belzebub - but it's cost them one membership and it irks me that I can't now attend a Sydney derby and cheer for GWS against the Swans, if only to be able to annoy the vanilla Swans supporters ...

Ron...itll make you feel infinitely better if you take that money and geta couple of cheap flights and come down to a Dees game at teh G... very cathargic !!!

Ron...itll make you feel infinitely better if you take that money and geta couple of cheap flights and come down to a Dees game at teh G... very cathargic !!!

And cathartic too.

And cathartic too.

Pesky little phone kb and big thumb !! Lol

Yep catharTic

it's all very well that some Sydneysiders find it amusing to have Sheedy 'sticking it up' the Melbourne clubs, but the trouble with that is, what they are enjoying is hating AFL, more than developing any parochial attachment to GWS.

As the original poster said, I'd be right behind the West Sydney push if it was being done right, in any way at any level.

There is such a great haphazard lack of strategy to the AFL's efforts that it just beggars belief. If they want to spend $100m on this project, $10m of grassroots development should already have been investing in strengthening the second-tier competion (remembering the Swans play their reserves in the ACT to find a better standard of competetion!) and supporting facilities (GWS training at Rooty Hill RSL Gymnasium?!)

But the critical part is, the success of GWS will be on the back of one of the all-time great word-of-mouth marketing efforts - most potential GWS fans will be brought through the gates for the first time because an existing AFL fan brought them along. Burn that goodwill, burn GWS.

Meanwhile, anyone else noticing that the AFL website has taken editorialising to a whole new level? Every second article (except maybe Dream Team) is loaded with Today-Tonight style lead-ins "Well, no surprises that this person thinks this, after all they [insert implication of compromsied opinion here]..."

I really want GWS to succeed, I really want AFL to span every corner of this country, and I would even have been a 'pre-member' last year, but I simply don't believe the AFL or Sheedy have the slightest clue what they are doing, and have got themselves into a 'everything is fine, don't you worry about that' tangle.

Who knows for a fact that GWS has made any offer for Tom Scully, let alone one for a contract term of six years at $1m a year?

We don't really know and it's plausible that the rumours emanated from others - perhaps his management wanting to ramp up his price or simply from mischievous rumourmongers. If that's the case then the whole Scully thing has nothing to do at all with Sheedy's strategy, nor is GWS playing hard ball over him.

Sheedy's strategy is partly to spruik for GWS and football in that region and partly to coach a fledgling football team. He's very good in the former role and at play acting the fool because controversial left of centre comments and behaviour will always attract attention and keep him and his club in the media forefront (even in Sydney) and that's what he wants.

So he'll play up the Scully and Bartel angles and hint about taking one of the Magpie trio because he knows it's going to make the news. This doesn't mean that Scully to GWS is a done deal or anything like it. Money might become a factor later on but in the interim, it's Sheedy's other role that might play a part in deciding his future.

In that regard, I think Sheedy has had his day as a coach and he's a long way behind the modern young coaches of today. This is what Essendon people have been telling me for some time i.e that the club went backwards on the field in his last few years because he wasn't keeping up with the trends of modern day football. From what I've seen and what I've been told, the situation is no better in 2011 than it was in 2007.

Back then I wanted the club to get Sheedy because I thought he would be great at performing both of the above functions as a coach at a moribund club. I soon learned otherwise and now believe he would have been a monumental flop at Melbourne. For that we can thank Paul Gardner and those at the club who recruited Dean Bailey.

Sheedy's been great for football over the years. I have my doubts about how he's going to perform at GWS. I suspect it'll be a long time before that franchise succeeds

Hasn't the club really qualified the Scully issue when they said at the recent Future Fund function that they have spoken to Tom Scully and his Manager and they have assured the club that neither of them have even spoken to GWS or their representatives. In fact, apparently Tom is mystified as to how this issue even arose. You might argue then if Tom wanted it to go away why doesn't he sign a deal now? I guess he and his management would argue that that might take away his bargaining position at the end of the season.

If this is the case this is not necessarily bad for the Demons. At least it says he is prepared to back himself to have a stand out year which can only be good for us. It is up to us to make sure he is happy with the current Dees set up and then we can negotiate towards the end of the year in good faith. Making the eight and having infield success as a team which shows progress in building the dynasty. I've always felt is the best way to keep the team together.

Everything we see indicates that CS and DB are doing an outstanding job in this respect, with virtually no issues on the Demon list like the ones that have dogged the WCE, Essendon, St Kilda, Brisbane and even Collingwood. We have even gathered some very positive publicity in the way the Club is managing the number of culturally sensitive issues surrounding its indigenous list, and our support for raising funds for breast cancer research, and our visionary foray into China. Let's hope it continues.

Let's also hope that the MFC will also be recognized for not only having a brilliant and highly entertaining football team, but for being a socially progressive organization as well as a model of good corporate governance. I think we are well on the way to achieving this which is a huge credit to all those involved from Jim down and also the players and their leadership which I think is first class.

It will be fascinating watching this play out over the coming years, and hopefully will make us all immensely proud to support such an excellent organization.

Edited February 20, 201114 yr by DeesPower

I am, and have always been, a Sydney-sider. Unusually for a Sydney-sider, I love AFL and, perhaps even more unusually, I am a passionate Melbourne Demons supporter.

I have taken a lot of heat over a long, long time from a lot of people in Sydney for supporting the Dees. In particular, from quite a few of my mates who support the Swans.

Along with another friend of mine who's a Dons supporter, I was going to buy a GWS membership this year - essentially to help the AFL get a foot hold in Sydney's west, but also to get in the face of my Swans supporting mates.

I am not the only person in Sydney to have entertained doing this. Many people who live in Sydney, but support clubs other than the Swans, may also have entertained doing this to support the growth of the code.

BUT - given Sheedy's irreverent and idiotic rhetoric of late, and the fact that GWS is playing hard ball on young players like Tom Scully, they can get stuffed. Truly stuffed.

So Kevin - you've cost your club one less membership this year. Not that I would ever truly support any club other than the MFC, I was going to assist in giving GWS a much needed leg up this year - but no more.

Perhaps something these idiots have failed to consider?! Having said that, Sheedy doesn't strike me as a particularly considered man or thinker.

In short, GWS's approach to poaching young players has some genuine downside that I suspect they've not even started to think about. And perhaps this is something they should have thought about, giving that they are throwing unlimited cash at marketing at the moment ...

Do you have a MFC membership Ron? Maybe that's a better place to put your money and to give us the leg up you talk about?! The AFL will look after their little investments, so don't think by giving 9or not giving) GWS a few hundred bucks will make any difference in the slightest.

Do you have a MFC membership Ron? Maybe that's a better place to put your money and to give us the leg up you talk about?! The AFL will look after their little investments, so don't think by giving 9or not giving) GWS a few hundred bucks will make any difference in the slightest.

Dead set, some people on this site are so damn myopic it continues to amaze me.

This thread makes an observation about the marketing strategy adopted by a new expansion club, namely GWS. I would've thought it is currently quite a relevant topic for people who take an interest in the code.

But Demonator, in answer to your patronising (and wholly simplistic) question/observation: yes I am a member. FWIW, I have also signed up most of my family, several of whom couldn't give a rat's about AFL, let alone the Demons (including, for instance, my 98 year old grandmother who has not ever even seen a game of AFL). I have also donated $1000s to the debt demolition campaign over the last few years. My wife and I also regularly fly down to watch games. In fact, you could count on one hand the number of MFC games I've missed (internet, tv or radio) over the past 10-12 years.

But thanks for your insightful and generous comments Demonator - it's people like you who continue to add value to the world ...