GREATER Western Sydney has expressed a desire to expose its wealth of young talent to the biggest stage of all, Friday night footy, as of next year.
GWS chief executive Dave Matthews told AFL.com.au the League's public support of the game in the northern states after it announced a landmark broadcast deal on Tuesday, is a vote of confidence for his club.
Matthews said the competition's youngest club has taken significant strides in all aspects of the game since it entered the AFL in 2012, and from next season the Giants want the opportunity to take their exciting brand of footy to prime time.
"Performance on the field and growth off the field tends to look after your broadcast slots," Matthews said.
"We think our preferred slot in Sydney is a Saturday twilight (game), but we would love to showcase (the club) nationally on a Friday or a Thursday (night).
"We're very flexible, we're a very open and accessible club; if there's innovations in the fixture then we're a club that wants to be innovative too.
"The continued exposure is really important and the media and broadcast partners play such a role in the ability to promote (the code).
"To hear the broadcast partners talk specifically about the role that they think they can play in helping grow the game, that's just really highlighted the opportunities we've got to pursue over the period to come.
"It's an unbelievable result but if you cast your mind forward it's going to give a lot of people confidence in the future direction of the game."
The AFL's six-year, $2.508 billion broadcast agreement will run until the end of the 2022 season, and Matthews believes in that time, the code has the chance to level the playing field in states traditionally dominated by rugby league and union.
Funding for the GWS and Sydney Swans academies in New South Wales will no doubt be a hot topic when the clubs sit down with League officials, as will the growth of footy at grass roots level across the state.
Many have questioned the long-term viability of the Giants in Western Sydney, a diehard rugby league heartland, but with the support of the AFL, Matthews says the possibilities for his club and the competition are endless.
"The AFL took a calculated risk in deciding to put a second club into Queensland and a club for the people of Western Sydney and Canberra, and this is just vindication for those decisions," Matthews said.
"If you listen to the commentary by the AFL and the broadcast partners, every one of them to a man spoke of the desire to help us grow as a game in New South Wales, the ACT and Queensland.
"If you're a supporter of the Giants or if you've been sitting back asking yourself if expansion was going to succeed, well you got your answer.
"It allows us to consolidate expansion and grow the supporter base for Australian football as we all have the aspiration to do.
"I think right now it's a pretty good moment for everybody in the industry and footy fans in general to pause and say that this is enormous vindication for Australia's game.
"You cast you mind forward to the end of this deal just done and think what's possible (and) where could we be.
"We've got so much ground to make up in Sydney and so much work to do in Queensland, and places like Canberra, and this now gives us that opportunity."
