The GWS Giants have taken a cheeky dig at Collingwood for a social media post trumpeting a new training facility that used to be the club’s netball training court.
Last week the Magpies posted a video celebrating their new football training facilities, replacing what used to be a netball training base.
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The footage sees defender Jeremy Howe explaining to fans about the club’s “newly, fresh laid out indoor court”, which will be used by Collingwood’s AFL and AFLW teams.
“The boys are gonna have a hell of a time in here, so looking forward to it,” he said.
Magpies players are then seen training on indoor turf, with a miniature footy oval painted over the top, though basketball/netball hoops are also visible at one end.
The area was a netball court for the club’s Super Netball side, which the Magpies folded in 2023, pointing to a reported yearly loss of $1 million.
The Magpies as a whole made a profit of $7.56 million in the financial year ending October 31, 2023.
Meanwhile a recent renovation of the club’s headquarters was funded, in part, by a $15 million federal government infrastructure grant intended to provide improved facilities for women’s sports teams.
Collingwood funded the new indoor turf field itself and the government grant was not used to pay for the turf. News.com.au has contacted Collingwood for comment.
Some Magpies fans reacted positively to the video but the overwhelming majority of replies centred on the netball team, criticising the fact the change had been celebrated as an “upgrade”.
The video has been viewed more than 1.2 million times.
Collingwood was criticised for hiding a reply to the video that said: “Rip our netball team.”
“Fair to say this hasn’t gone down well in the comments and quote tweets,” News Corp’s Lachie McKirdy posted.
He added: “Hiding a comment about the netball team is also an interesting choice.”
In a cheeky response, the Giants retweeted Collingwood’s video with a photo of GWS netballer Matisse Letherbarrow and AFL midfielder Finn Callaghan both giving a thumbs up.
The photo was captioned: “Looks good” with a thumbs up emoji.
It was a savage dig at Collingwood, who disbanded its Super Netball team in 2023 citing an annual loss of $1 million.
The Giants are now only one of a couple of clubs who have both Super Netball and AFL teams. The Sunshine Coast Lightning are affiliated with the Melbourne Storm.
It’s another chapter in the GWS-Collingwood rivalry after the Magpies beat the Giants by one point in a thrilling preliminary final last year.
But Collingwood fans were quick to remind the Giants they beat them on their way to winning the AFL premiership.
Collingwood premiership player Mason Cox has previously called the Giants’ home ground at Sydney Olympic Park “a showground for livestock”.
The quip was in reference to GWS’ home ground GIANTS Stadium also being where the Sydney Royal Easter Show is held in the early stages of the AFL season.
“To be honest, it’s D-grade comedy at best,” Giants boss Dave Matthews said November.
“I guess that’s his thing. I guess it resonates with some people. I didn’t see it, someone showed it to me.
“I guess our players and fans are looking forward to giving him a warm welcome when he does get here, assuming he’s in the side.”
The Giants have featured Cox in a graphic along with cows and sheep in a promotion for the Opening Round game on March 9.
Former Magpie Dane Swan, who won the 2010 premiership and the 2011 Brownlow Medal, had an unsurprising response to a comment calling for Collingwood to refund its government grant.
Swan wrote on Twitter: “We never plan to refund you but thanks for helping us win the ‘23 flag fyi. if you’re gonna cry about it cry into our 2023 premiership cup so we can drink your tears out of it. this rabble of a club you speak about is the biggest and best sporting club in Australia. Y U jealous.”
Kane Cornes said Collingwood’s handling of the criticism to the video could have been better.
“The controversial part of this is that the (initial) upgrade was partially built by a $15 million government grant … but Collingwood’s reaction to this was where the error was,” Cornes said on SEN on Monday.
“I don’t reckon Collingwood needs $15 million of taxpayer funded money and I get the backlash behind that … but then Collingwood started blocking people as far as I could see on Twitter and hiding a reply.”
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