Dear Members and Supporters of the GIANTS,

Given the developments of the past week, I thought it  was important to outline to you our position as a club.

We put forward a very attractive and sensible offer to Lance Franklin of $1.2 million a year for six years. Ultimately he chose to accept a nine year, $10 million contract from the Swans.

We would never have considered making such an offer. As the AFL noted, a nine year contract for a 26 year-old player is an extraordinary risk and one we would never entertain.

To do so would be to risk our list management strategy for the sake of one individual and we were simply not prepared to do that. It would have put intolerable pressure on our salary cap and jeopardised the culture we are trying to build at our Club.

We are committed to bringing experienced players into our Club but not at any cost. With the recruiting of Swans premiership ruckman Shane Mumford we have acquired a quality player and person who will provide leadership on and off the field.

We will continue to be aggressive during the trade period to bring the necessary players into your Club to achieve on-field success and look forward to sharing more exciting announcements with you in the coming weeks.

We strongly support the 9.8 per cent Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) for the Sydney clubs as there is no doubt that the cost of living in Sydney is significantly higher.

We would be extremely disappointed if recent deals offered by the Swans  jeopardise the future of COLA and I have personally communicated this to departing Swans chairman Richard Colless.

If it were to be abolished, we have advised the AFL that  the GIANTS would seek an Expansion Allowance at the same level of COLA for a period of time at the discretion of the AFL Commission to assist us to continue to attract and retain players during our formation years. We expect this would have the support of the other 17 AFL clubs.

With more experienced players alongside the likes of Jeremy Cameron, Jon Patton, Callan Ward, Lachie Whitfield, Tom Scully and many more of our talented playing list we have no doubt that an exciting future awaits this club in Western Sydney and Canberra.

I have always said that we want to be a Club that values success but also has strong values. As loyal members of our Club, you would expect nothing less and we can’t wait for 2014 to start.

Round one against the Swans at our home ground at Sydney Olympic Park promises to be a big game for many reasons. I have no doubt the next instalment of the Battle of the Bridge will be a sell-out and the continuation what will be a huge cross town rivalry for many years to come.

Regards

Tony Shepherd

Chairman