[size=9]Auburn Tigers Unity Cup[/size]

The Auburn Tigers will launch an annual ‘Unity Cup’ battle against The UTS Shamrocks as part of the annual Multicultural Round. The launch of the 'Unity Cup' is inspired by the teams experience at the 2012 AFL Multicultural Round where the Tigers and Shamrocks clashed at ANZ Stadium as a curtain raiser to the Swans v Giants ‘Sydney Derby’ match. Lauded as the Sydney women’s derby with respective teams representing Sydney’s East and West, the Unity Cup will be a display of talent across a mix of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. President of the UTS Shamrocks, Simone Faulkner said, ‘it is important to acknowledge the contribution multicultural teams and diversity brings to the game and football community’. The diversity continues to grow in AFL at the elite level but more importantly in community football. Half of the players from the Shamrocks are first or second generation Australians or here temporarily. The Shamrocks is home to a record number of international representative players with 5 on their current player list having competed at the 2011 International Cup on either the Irish or Australian Indigenous/Multicultural teams. The Shamrocks have long been known for their inclusion of visiting European and North American foreign nationals with the team accommodating foreign exchange students attending their affiliated university at UTS. This, along with the Club’s Irish roots has made for an interesting team dynamic. Similarly the Tigers is known for being socially inclusive of multicultural communities. 84% of the Tigers are from Multicultural communities such as Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Malaysia and 16% are Anglo-saxon. The majority of players are second generation Australians with either one or both parents born overseas. Uniquely, the team is intercultural and interfaith, made up of 80% women from Muslim communities. Co-founder of the Auburn Tigers, Lael Kassem said, “Unity Cup is a chance to celebrate the contributions multicultural players make to the growing women’s competition. It’s great for all communities to come together through sport and celebrate what unities us... being Australian”. The winning team will stamp their logo on the Unity Cup and hold the trophy at their clubhouse until they clash again in coming years. Also, a plaque will engrave the ‘best and fairest’ player annually. The 2013 Multicultural Round will be celebrated on the big screen when the Swans v Giants play at the SCG. It will also be celebrated by culturally diverse teams and football
clubs. The Tigers and Shamrocks currently sit close on the Women’s Division 2 ladder and the outcome of the game can affect finals inclusion. The teams take pride in promoting the cultural and religious diversity of NSW and believe the teams are a microcosm of the wider Australian society.

[size=9]From Cats to GIANTS[/size]

A club in Swans territory, branded with the GIANTS name and colours, this Concord club are a growing junior AFL club in Sydney's footy heartland. Beginning in 2005 as the Concord Cats with a single Auskick team of just 11 players and three Committee Members, the club has grown exponentially over the past seven years. Through the hard work of volunteer parents, the club reached more than 100 registered young players for season 2012. With the GWS GIANTS moving in to their new home at Sydney Olympic Park, the Concord side rebranded themselves to align with the newest AFL team, taking their name and colours. This rebrand, combined with a focus on player retention, quality marketing and a variety of other recruitment strategies by the now 14-member strong Committee, has seen the Giants increase their player numbers by an incredible 89 per cent this season to 189 registrations. Auskick teams in the Under-6, Under-7 and Under-8 divisions have ballooned in numbers, generating more than one team in each age group for the local competitions. With many young inner-west kids choosing AFL as their first-choice sport, the GIANTS’ future looks bright. Recruitment and Marketing Manager David Bradley said the club is focused on continuing to grow and provide Concord kids with a quality local club. "We work hard to be consistently professional, welcoming and considerate," he said. "We are always passionate, delivering a great experience for the entire family and never swaying from our defined mission. "We always strive to live up to our club motto: ‘To give the kids of Concord the opportunity to enjoy football and form friendships.’" Concord GIANT Emmalee Beggs was recently named the Round 14 nominee for the NAB AFL Auskicker of the Year Award and will star on Grand Final Day when the 7-year-old plays on the MCG and presents a Premiership-winning player with their medallion. Her dad Grant Beggs said the GIANTS name convinced his kids to take up the game. "We are passionate GIANTS fans, foundation members and go to all the home game and some of the Canberra games. I suggest that she would be the first GWS GIANTS member to be selected," he said. "If it wasn't for the GWS GIANTS, Emmalee wouldn't be playing Australian Rules football. Furthermore, my two boys would not be into AFL either. Although I am a life time follower of AFL, when we moved to Sydney three years ago the kids didn't have much exposure to AFL, so they started playing soccer. "When the GWS GIANTS started playing last year and with all the marketing and involvement that you do, our kids became obsessed with the GIANTS. "Last year my oldest boy played for North Ryde Dockers junior AFL team. In October last year when he found out that Concord Cats had changed to Concord GIANTS he insisted on changing teams so that he could play with the GIANTS. "Emmalee planned to play netball this year, but after seeing her brother train in the GIANTS guernsey and after attending the Concord GIANTS launch night where Kevin Sheedy was special guest she decided she really wanted to play AFL. She is now a strong performer in the Under-7s and loves playing the game."

http://www.gwsgiants.com.au/news/2013-07-13/from-cats-to-giants

[size=9]GIANTS Celebrate Many Cultures[/size]

The Greater Western Sydney GIANTS will host the inaugural Many Cultures match against Melbourne at ŠKODA Stadium on Saturday August 3. Chief Executive David Matthews and Head Coach Kevin Sheedy made the announcement at Tom Wills Oval at Sydney Olympic Park where they were joined by members of World Team playing in this week's NAB AFL Under 16 championships. "This match will be a great opportunity for us to celebrate the cultural diversity of Western Sydney," Matthews said. "As the AFL's newest club, we want to embrace the different cultures that make up Western Sydney. One of the great strengths of our game is that it is inclusive and open to everyone regardless of their background." As part of the AFL's and GIANTS' commitment to diversity and inclusion, there will be a number of initiatives to recognise multicultural communities AFL NSW/ACT, in partnership with the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, will be hosting a Citizenship Ceremony prior to the game. Thirty people will become Australian citizens with Federal, State and Local Politicians present to witness the ceremony. The participants will be invited to the game, giving them the opportunity to experience their first live AFL match at ŠKODA Stadium with their family and friends. The GIANTS in partnership with the Multicultural Youth Affairs Network, will also be inviting refugee and new migrant youth to attend. Students from local secondary schools in Western Sydney will also be invited to present cultural performances at the game. “This is an opportunity for migrant and refugee youth to come together and celebrate diversity through our indigenous game,” said GIANTS Community Engagement Manager Ali Faraj. As part of the match day activities, the Gaelic Athletic Association will also play a special curtain raiser with involvement from the large Irish population across Sydney. AFL NSW/ACT runs programs across the state that are designed to engage multicultural individuals and communities in a number of different ways. In 2012, more than 4000 multicultural participants were involved in school, community and talent based initiatives. The GIANTS will play the Sydney Swans in the Sydney Derby at the SCG this Sunday as part of AFL Multicultural Round.

http://www.gwsgiants.com.au/news/2013-07-10/giants-celebrate-many-cultures-

FREOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

GIANTS Celebrate Many Cultures

Aren't the English, Scottish, Irish and New Zealanders part of our multi-cultural society.

I'm saddened to hear that.

I note Syson is not game enough to talk about our indigenous Australians.

Hmmm....

But...Giants don't recruit from the immigration department like Wanderers do...

Syson, because he is not blowing his own trumpet in the massive circlejerk over two non-white players in the game.

Not only is it a product of the Roos' helter-skelter game plan, but it also shows this is quickly becoming a mental problem too.

Syson is just another soccerina having a whinge about the most successful football comp in the land.

His main focus in life is to re-write Australian sporting history, and make soccer look like it has had a more central part in Australian lives over the last 150 years - which is a bit at odds with this latest whinge.

Edited by Mister Football: 15/7/2013 09:11:14 AM

There is a stat that shows Goldstein and Petrie are the least benched players in their position in the competition. They get benched less than 25% of the time that the next LOWEST in their positions do. At the same time they have 5 midfielders in the top 10 most benched players. So by about half way through the third quarter they start to lose the ruck battle, and in turn the clearances and midfield battle. At the same time Petrie is exhausted and can't create a contest when it does go forward. They desperately need a Mike Pyke type player who can split time between key forward and second ruckman.

GWS screwed up by not recruiting any on-field leaders. They were more interested in the PR moves in having Sheedy and Folau on board. Losing Folau just made the whole thing even more laughable.

Brace for 20 years of GWS misery

by: Patrick Smith
From: The Australian
July 17, 2013 12:00AM

YEP, yep, yep. We got the Gold Coast idea. Tourists, retirees heading up from down south. Transplanted AFL fans. Yep, yep, yep. Makes sense. Pinching Karmichael Hunt was clever. Got everybody's attention. And then the league star - or was it union? What the heck - kicked that first goal. You were always half a chance after that.

But then you went and plonked yourself in Sydney. Or, more precisely, western Sydney. Soccer territory, rugby league lovers. Probably Mike Fitzpatrick's idea, the chairman of the AFL Commission. Tends to get a bit ahead of himself. Or that bloke Demetriou. That's when he is here and not on holidays or watching the Olympics in London.

They say Demetriou is on six million big ones as chief executive of the AFL. They put Israel Folau on $8 million when they grabbed him from league. Or was that union too? Well, he took one mark in two years and the AFL footy station kept playing it. Must have been on a loop.

Poor bloke didn't have a clue what he was doing. No feel for the game, couldn't pick up the rhythm. But head coach Kevin Sheedy said he could punch the ball like few men ever have in the game. It was a real skill, said the coach. Every punch cost the AFL about $3m. Anyway, Folau did a runner and ended up playing union. Or was that league?

But they couldn't keep people away from the GWS games. On the big days they were pulling - not counting parents and family and AFL cardboard cut-outs - upwards of eight to 10 people. Packed out houses at Skoda Stadium. Same at Manuka Oval. And Blacktown. The Giants had more grounds than they did wins.

Still, a lot of people supported the AFL move. Could see the strategic sense of getting a second foothold in the country's biggest city. This column certainly did not. Absolutely not. What you saw back then in several columns was just mischief-making by a malicious sub-editor. He has been disciplined by management and is now publicity officer for the Giants.

Talk to the AFL and they will tell you that the Giants are pulling crowds as big as Penrith. That membership is up, the budget is flying as are corporate support and sponsorship. They have no trouble in signing up the kids to renew contracts. The people in NSW are desperate for the Giants to shrink into oblivion.

But Demetriou - on line from Monte Carlo - reaffirmed that the Giants were not a one or two-year try-it-and-see venture. This is a 15 to 20-year mission. He points back to the early 1990s when the great Ron Barassi, a four-time premiership coach, was in charge of Sydney. Hopeless. In 1993, 1994 Barassi could win just five matches out of 37 and the club had barely 3000 members. Sydney has won two of the last eight premierships.

Sheeds has been great, too, as coach - four premierships - and ambassador. But not one person in Sydney has understood anything he has said in three years. Which is beaut because there has not been much good stuff to talk about. Well, that's not quite true. There was the day they had a lockout crowd when the GWS played Sydney in round one of season 2012. Giants CEO David Matthews forgot the keys to ANZ Stadium.

Sheeds doesn't do a lot of coaching these days. Neither might his assistant Leon Cameron because the Giants haven't won a match in nearly a year. Cameron had the Port Adelaide job this season but was wooed by GWS.

He replaced Mark Williams, who was Sheedy's assistant in the first year. Apparently Williams was good with the little Giants but could not get out of the place quick enough after the siren blew the end to the last game. He had left the engine of his car running. He is at Richmond now where they reckon he is doing an important development job. Both Richmond and Port are in the top eight and Cameron is still plotting his first win at the GWS. Good choice, Leon.

Meanwhile a former AFL heavy, Ben Buckley, staked out turf for a soccer club in western Sydney. It drew more people to its first training session than the Giants' aggregate crowd figure coming to the end of its second year. Then the soccer mob went and finished on top of the A-League table. Folau played centre forward before riding a heady race in the Melbourne Cup.

Now the Giants want Buddy Franklin, the champion Hawthorn forward. GWS will pay him $21m a quarter and they have agreed to put him up at the Opera House. That's the thing with funny ears, Buddy.

Franklin looked certain to go a couple of weeks ago but the GWS got flogged by 21 goals last week by the 2012 premiers Sydney Swans. Buddy might win another flag this year at Hawthorn and a couple more after that. Average crowd this year for GWS is about 15,000, which is fewer than the line-up outside the Eve nightclub when Buddy's at the bar.

Yep, yep, yep. We could see the method in the Gold Coast madness. But GWS? People are only seeing the madness now. As for Sheeds, these days he just stays on the boundary line during matches. You can see him writing furiously in the Footy Record. It is always the same thing. "Dear God, how did I end up here?"

The giants are a ambysal failure by AFL hq . Seriously going to western Sydney instead of Tassie is truly mind bogling