Departing GWS chief executive Dave Matthews has fired back at Sydney president Andrew Pridham’s bombshell suggestion that the Giants should all but move out of the city.
The latest escalation in the long-running feud between the two clubs arrived last week when the Swans presented to the AFL Commission on all things football in the Harbour City and NSW.
Pridham and new CEO Matthew Pavlich spoke, with the former telling football’s powerbrokers that “GWS should focus on Canberra and the Riverina”.
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“Essentially what he’s saying is Sydney (the club) want GWS out of Sydney (the city) to go to Canberra and the Riverina,” Tom Morris revealed on Channel 7’s The Agenda Setters.
“I spoke to outgoing Giants CEO Dave Matthews this evening and it’s fair to say he wasn’t happy.”
In a statement to The Agenda Setters, Matthews said: “The Swans had a 30-year head start but should understand the need for two big Sydney clubs. Thinking otherwise is at best narrow-minded and at worst selfish.”
Morris said it is now “fair to say this relationship or this bickering has escalated a fair amount this season”.
Pridham had put GWS’s progress under the microscope during Gather Round, mentioning western Sydney unprompted before facing another question.
Asked if he felt inroads had been made with football in western Sydney, the long-time board member and chair was blunt: “No. None”
He doubled down when asked if the Giants need to be revisited.
“I think the Giants do a very good job with difficult circumstances and limited resources. It’s not easy, it’s not their role to develop the game in Sydney per se — they’re a football club like we are, trying to win games,” Pridham said.
“They’re in Canberra, they’ve done a great job in Canberra, they get a lot of support there, it’s very hard to get any attention in western Sydney.”
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Morris confirmed the AFL Commission is “locked into GWS being in Sydney” but “I don’t think they’re necessarily locked into them being in western Sydney”.
“There are many different ways they can try to target the Sydney market but they won’t be going to Canberra full-time,” he said.
Caroline Wilson added “the Swans think the Giants are trying to move in”, referencing a previous bid to host games at the SCG that was criticised by Pridham.
The Agenda Setters host Craig Hutchison was baffled by the latest conjecture behind closed doors.
“That’s the first time I’ve heard the Swans say they want the Giants out,” he said, adding he could not understand why the Swans would not want GWS to move east to help grow the game.
Morris replied: “They also think the Giants is a failed exercise and as a result they should get out, that’s the crux of it.”
Hutchison said growing football across the whole of Sydney is a “massive problem” for the Giants, Swans and AFL to solve together.
“They can’t be getting tribal at this time,” he said.
Morris added: “The AFL knows it’s a problem as well. They acknowledge that, they’re trying to fix it, it just takes time.”
Earlier this month Matthews revealed the club is open to rebranding away from the GWS moniker.
