- Switch would be welcomed by many AFL fans
Greater Western Sydney Giants officials have confirmed they are weighing up a potential change to the club’s name after realising it doesn’t make any sense.
The Giants played their first match in the 2012 season and have made one grand final appearance.
But despite the club’s popularity increasing across the last decade and a half, AFL fans have frequently criticised the name – and now team chairman Tim Reed appears to have realised they’re right.
There have been calls for the Giants to shed the ‘Greater Western Sydney’ part of their moniker because Sydneysiders have never used it to describe the area.
‘It’s something that we might contemplate in time,’ club Reed said.
‘The most important part of a brand is what it stands for.
The GWS Giants could soon change the nonsensical name they’ve been using for 15 years (pictured, club captain Toby Greene)
Many footy fans have been calling for the club to make the switch because the term ‘Greater Western Sydney’ has never been used to describe the club’s home base
‘No one who you ask who lives in Sydney says “I live in Greater Western Sydney”.
‘It’s not a term that people naturally identify with, so it brings no benefit to the club in terms of a brand.’
Fans have reacted positively to the possibility the team will go by a different tag.
‘I lived in NSW and aside from GWS I never once heard anyone say greater western Sydney it means nothing to anyone,’ one fan said on X.
‘Should never have been called Greater Western Sydney, which became GWS. Should always have been West/Western Sydney,’ another added.
‘They couldn’t work that out 15 years ago?’ one more said.
‘Should’ve always just been Western Sydney Giants,’ another claimed.
AFL identity Eddie McGuire is a fan of the change, but he believes it doesn’t go anywhere near far enough.
Giants supporters have come out in favour of dropping the ‘GWS’ part of the name (pictured, Toby Green in action)
AFL identity Eddie McGuire (pictured) wants the club to change to the NSW Giants
‘I just think the NSW Giants and get them playing as they are in Canberra and get the whole lot,’ McGuire told Channel Nine’s Footy Classified.
‘Sydney Swans. NSW, they (Giants) get the whole lot – don’t just look at one little pocket.
‘They went with GWS because they didn’t want to call them the Blacktown Giants or anything else.
‘They wanted to spread it out in much the same way as the Western Bulldogs have been able to do.’
