AFL wouldn't be happy with Sheedy's comments on supporters backgrounds.
GWS Giants coach Kevin Sheedy has been labelled a "muppet" by Wellington Phoenix skipper Andrew Durante after his comments in the aftermath of the Giants' capitulation to Adelaide.
The Giants were thumped by 135 points on Sunday afternoon with a crowd of just under 6,000 turning up to watch the winless side’s first home game of the year in the Olympic precinct.
Sheedy said the club didn’t have anyone from the "immigration department" handling their fan recruitment as, apparently, Western Sydney Wanderers do.
"It’s a pity because that’s how many turned up after a pretty solid performance against Essendon last week," he said.
"So, it’s just going to go and tell everybody how tough it’s going to be to build this club. It’s as simple as that.
"We don’t have the recruiting officer called the immigration department recruiting fans for Western Sydney Wanderers – we don’t have that on our side.
"We’re actually going to start up a whole new ball park and go and find fans because that’s what happens when you bring a lot of people through, channel into a country and put them into the west of Sydney and they build a club like that one year and all of a sudden they’ve got 10,000 fans and probably 20,000 going to a game."
Sheedy's comments caused a stir on social media platforms, but the coach took to Twitter in an attempt to clarify their meaning on Sunday night.
"All I said was that Wanderers have an advantage because most people that migrate to Australia know soccer - it's a world sport,'' the four-time premiership coach posted.
"We have to work a lot harder to attract people to our game and we will. I am on record for praising Wanderers and what they have achieved.''
It did little to abate social-media condemnation, led by the likes of Durante.
"Sheedy you #muppet,'' the Sydney-born defender wrote.
"If he wanted more people from the west coming 2 support..He's totally blown that now. Next home game will have 4k.''
http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/gws-coach-unleashes-extraordinary-rant-following-the-giants-massive-loss-to-adelaide-crows/story-e6frfkp9-1226640686538#ixzz2T7smiTjX
Idiotic from Sheeds to use the demographics of Western Sydney as an excuse for the poor crowd although in his madness he's deflected attention away from him being coach of a side that was flogged by 20 goals and that hasn't got within a final margiin of 5 goals against any side including the hapless Demons.
Everyone knew the GWS crowd figures were going to be as awful as their onfield results in the first 5-7 years. Sydneysiders love winners and are the biggest bandwagoners in the country. They'll pack out one off events or what's the latest fad (any code) but don't turn up in numbers week in week out. All the Western Sydney NRL clubs - Parra, West Tigers and Penrith - are struggling onfield this year and had terrible crowds on the weekend too despite be around for 50+ years and playing in so called Rugby League heartland. Parra had 11k, Penrith had 7k and Wests vs Cronulla had just 9k between two Sydney-based clubs. Sheeds let his own frustration and the constant Aussie Rules bashing from the Sydney media get to him. Sure the Wanderers did fantastically for their first season for a new Soccer club but they still only averaged home crowds of 12k in a season they finished top of the table and made the Grand Final. Sheeds should have shut up with the ethnic crap and let us all see how many people turn up to Wanderers games when they start losing. As Sydney FC found out after they won the A-league title in the first year, crowds fall off as quickly as they jump on the bandwagon up there.
ps. Welligton Pheonix crowds this season were GWS-esque (avg. 6,882) so no one from that club can talk.
