JEREMY Cameron was a massive loss for GWS Giants. Dave Matthews' exit might be just as big.
Matthews didn't kick 427 goals nor was he central to Grand Final and preliminary final campaigns, but as the Giants' inaugural chief executive officer, he provided not just a platform but a clout which over 15 years has given the AFL's 18th licence a fighting chance of relevance in Australia's most challenging sports and business market.
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Coincidentally just one hour before the Melbourne Football Club on Tuesday sacked its CEO Paul Guerra after just seven months in the role, which highlighted the regular volatility in these positions, Matthews was asked to project the skillset required for the post he has held since 2011.
"Your resilience gets tested, and in helping out in terms of what capabilities does my successor need, it's more an attitude than it is a skillset," Matthews said. "I said you're gonna need tenacity, someone who is going to wake up knowing they're facing headwinds. Maybe less now than the early days, but there are always headwinds."
The Giants' presence in the greater western Sydney market and status within the AFL itself has been greatly scrutinised for the entirety of GWS' life, which began round one, 2012, one year after the Gold Coast Suns started.
Hundreds of millions of dollars have been pumped into the Giants' operations, which compete not just against 17 AFL teams but an entire rival code in the NRL, which has a foothold in the western parts of Sydney which will never be eroded.
"The degree of difficulty was high," Matthews said of his decision to heed then-AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou's request to leave AFL headquarters and head up the start-up Giants in 2011.
"It was a start-up in a cluttered and highly competitive market that at the time had no natural AFL foothold with which to work.
"Our (playing) list build – it made sense to us at the time and it still does make sense – we knew we needed to establish resilience in order for us to be able to sell hope, and to provide incentive for players like Phil Davis and Cal Ward who had put names and careers on the line to join us.
"The Kevin Sheedy appointment was huge. Losing by big margins in a growth market, having competition all around us in Sydney before we even got to factor in the other 17 AFL clubs, and then there was a business plan based on what was ultimately proven to be flawed assumptions, and needed more money and more strategic investment and a pivot to a high performance centre, away from portables.
"And there is a pride for this club in all of that. All of it has helped underpin player retention and regular finals. Winning in Sydney helps generate attention, and has a huge player retention factor."
Matthews' preparedness for a scrap of any nature has been a hallmark of his time at the Giants. Question his club, and he will question you. Occasionally an almighty row would ensue. He never carried a grudge beyond those heated moments, though, a key trait in a regularly hostile industry.
Matthews does not know what he will be doing professionally in 2027 and beyond, but he won't be short of options and it won't surprise should he be seen acting in multiple consultancy roles in high-end strategy briefs within the AFL system.
Asked if the Giants' challenges in 2026 remain as great as they were when he started, Matthews said:
"Not in the sense that there is now a stable base of fans, a very significant commercial sponsorship group, which is sixth or seventh in the AFL, the on-field is strong, AFLW is growing and bullish … it is not harder now, it is just different now, because establishing the culture was difficult.
"Eleven home games … we go close to selling out five of them and the growth will come in the other six, that will come, and in those six games the stadium is not half-empty anyway, it is half-full.
"We need to sustain football success and get the marketing right. When you are in Melbourne, and I was at AFL headquarters a long time and was guilty of this myself – it is easy to get sucked into thinking AFL is the only game in the world.
"Really, you don't need to market the game in Melbourne. Anzac Day sells out, clubs are 150 years old. But there is a marketing challenge which exists in Sydney generally that I know Tom Harley and Dills (Andrew Dillon) are cognisant of and are looking at doing things differently."
Matthews does not hesitate to name Toby Greene, who with career match No.268 last weekend passed Ward as the Giants' games record holder, as GWS's best ever player. "What Toby has done is give the club a real spirit, a real backbone," Matthews said.
While the Giants are yet to secure a premiership, making the 2019 Grand Final, after courageous performances in a semi-final (three-point win against Brisbane at the Gabba) and preliminary final (four-point win against Collingwood at the MCG), is the greatest source of pride for Matthews.
"The AFL has been absolutely vindicated in establishing the two newest clubs, and over time this one will be a very, very big football club," Matthews said. "Sydney deserves two big AFL teams. Demetriou presented expansion to the 16 clubs by basically saying that 53 per cent of Australia was only generating 20 per cent of the value of the TV rights, and it wasn't enough. So for us to be a national game, NSW and Queensland had to develop, that's the role the Giants and the Suns are playing."
Since 2015, the Giants have missed finals only twice. The Suns last year made the finals for the first time.
"And we have had our list establishment rules watered down in that time, and the Suns had their list topped up; we missed out on Buddy Franklin (when the Swans lured him at the end of 2013) and lost COLA (Cost Of Living Allowance) at the same time," Matthews said, in underlining the success of the Giants' well-planned list management strategy.
While the AFL continues to focus and celebrate the official launch of the Devils for the 2028 home-and-away season, it cannot allow Matthews' departure from the key post in the most challenging football market to set the Giants, and the game, back.
Matthews announced two weeks ago he would be leaving GWS at season's end. The search for his successor has begun. The club, and equally crucially the AFL, needs to ensure that person is part diplomat, part streetfighter with loads of resourcefulness.
This role remains arguably the toughest of all AFL club CEO posts and is not for the faint-hearted.
