NSWAFL wrote:It's called Blacktown International Sports Stadium, Dave.
really
someone ought to tell GWS that then ?
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 6242976109
WHEN the AFL Commission came to Western Sydney in November for the national draft the GWS Giants were training on a baseball diamond.
It was hardly an impressive sight for their $200 million investment.
While the Giants have a state-of-the-art ground being built at the Sydney Showground - to be known as Skoda Stadium - they don't have a permanent training venue.
Already the $1.20 favourites to claim the AFL wooden spoon, the new kids on the block aren't being helped by a cross-country pre-season training program.
The Giants have already trained at six different venues this pre-season including the car park at their Blacktown administrative base.
While committed to their Blacktown base long-term, the problem has forced new boss David Matthews to look at alternative training sites.
"We have to see what else is available," Matthews said. "We have a great relationship with cricket and Blacktown Council but we need a facility to meet our needs," he said.
The team already uses the nearby NSWIS gymnasium, Sydney Aquatic Centre and athletics track.
The Gipps Road sporting complex in Greystanes is also being looked at as a training centre.
The share arrangement with Cricket NSW at Blacktown means the Giants don't get access to either of the ovals at the facility until February.
"We've sorely tested our players this pre-season with the amount of time they've spent travelling from venue to venue," Matthews said.
"The time the players have spent on the roads we would much rather have them visiting schools."
The current movable feast of training venues is similar to the Sydney Swans' early days in the Harbour city.
The Red and Whites' lack of training facilities was a major contributor to the exodus of star players to Melbourne clubs in the early 1990s.
High draft picks Anthony Rocca (Collingwood) Shannon Grant (North Melbourne ) and Darren Gaspar (Richmond ) all departed Sydney after their two-year contracts.
It's an historical lesson the GWS Giants are familiar with as they endeavour to retain stars in the making such as Jonathon Patton and Stephen Coniglio.
"The best thing that the Giants can do is to keep the players together and to develop them," Matthews said yesterday.
"We have access to the best young players in the land for two years and we have to get their welfare, coaching and medical right."
Collingwood's president Eddie McGuire has made no secret of his intentions to try to lure as many as he can of the Giants rising young stars to the Magpies.
It took the Swans more than two decades before they eventually established a permanent training venue at the SCG.
They now have year-round access to Lakeside Oval, which is opposite the SCG, the nearby Sydney Football Stadium swimming pool and their own gymnasium.
It's no coincidence that this set-up has resulted in the club's most successful period.
The Swans have played in 13 of the past 16 finals series and won the 2005 premiership.
seriously ... when are you going to get informed .. not just about your own sport which you appear to know nothing about
but ... anything
. You can see here which is the professional sporting code in Sydney...well done Swans =D>