By Vince Rugari
Swans chairman Andrew Pridham has quickly shut down the latest attempt by the Giants to invade their territory, declaring the SCG off-limits to their crosstown rivals - except in one unlikely circumstance.
For several years, Greater Western Sydney has been exploring the possibility of playing a home game at the SCG during the six to eight-week period in which their primary home venue, Engie Stadium, is unavailable due to the Sydney Royal Easter Show.
The SCG is off limits, the Swans have told the Giants.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
The Giants are trying again for 2026 - this time as part of a deal with Richmond, who would sell one of their home games to the NSW government and play against GWS, who would instead be the away team at the storied Moore Park venue.
Pridham told this masthead that he was aware of those talks between the two clubs, but said the Swans had not been officially looped in. And that’s problematic, given that under their lease agreement, they have first and final rights over any AFL matches played at the SCG.
“We’re aware that there’s been discussions between the Giants and Richmond about playing a Richmond home game next season at the SCG,” he said.
“We haven’t been officially spoken to about it ... I don’t know how well-advanced the thinking is.
GWS Giants CEO Dave Matthews.Credit: Kate Geraghty
“Our position is consistent, as it’s always been: under our venue hire agreement, we have exclusive rights to AFL games on the SCG, and we would enforce that as we always have, so it’s not going to happen.”
There is only one specific situation in which the Swans would relent and allow another team to call the SCG home for a week, Pridham said: “We’re open to playing their [the Giants’] home derby at the SCG if that gives them a better financial outcome. Happy to do that. But the SCG is the home of the Sydney Swans.”
Sydney Swans chairman Andrew Pridham.Credit: Eamon Gallagher
Pridham said he had sympathy for the Giants’ Easter dilemma, which forces them out of the Sydney market for a two-month period of each season, and noted that they had to get creative to find solutions, like taking three games per year to Canberra - but he said for “a range of commercial reasons”, and because the will of Sydney’s fanbase, they would not entertain letting them use the SCG at that time.
Giants chief executive David Matthews is behind the idea, and said he made the suggestion about coming to Sydney to his counterparts at Richmond as they consider taking games to Tasmania from next year. His brother, Simon, is Richmond’s chief operating officer.
If the SCG is off the table, Matthews said Accor Stadium - the only other venue in Sydney capable of hosting AFL games - is also under consideration.
“It could solve a few problems,” he said.
“Firstly, it reinforces the strategic priority that Sydney is for the AFL to actually get more content up here. To get a big club like Richmond up here would be good for them, for the code, and it is obviously something that would help us. And the idea of it being Richmond home game means that we wouldn’t have to use a home game in that period. It’s then down to sort of the financials and the level of support that they may or may not get out of government.”
Matthews said he notified outgoing Swans chief executive Tom Harley about their thinking on Monday, but wasn’t surprised about Pridham’s lack of “enthusiasm” about sharing the SCG.
“[Harley’s] role changes in three or four weeks. He’d probably be at Docklands trying to help us solve issues like that - and right now he’s probably in a situation where he needs to make sure he’s trying to protect the Swans’ patch,” he said.
“They’ve got a user agreement that would give them some sort of exclusivity. The AFL need to consider that.
“I can understand the Swans’ position. I also know that the Swans and the Giants have to play a role for the AFL to try to grow the market. It’s not really in even the Swans’ interest that we have this massive market absence. The reason we started a second club in NSW is that we wanted football played every week.”
The oval at Blacktown International Sportspark would require further investment to get up to scratch for home-and-away fixtures, Matthews said, and was therefore not an option for 2026. The Giants have played only one home-and-away match at Blacktown, in round three of their debut season in 2012, as they awaited the completion of Engie Stadium’s redevelopment.
“That’s more a question for the AFL,” Matthews said of Blacktown. “You can play pre-season games there, but just in terms of broadcast facilities, corporate facilities, access, public transport … there’d be a fair bit of work required.”