GIANTS Chased Stars
KEVIN Sheedy has a blunt explanation as to why Greater Western Sydney has not signed any big name free agents: established clubs in Melbourne were too scared to play ball.
There has been a belief the Giants haven't tried hard enough to secure some big fish to add to their enormous stocks of talented youngsters.
It was an issue that raised its head on Sunday, when the infantile Giants were on the receiving end of a 135-point mauling against Adelaide.
It was widely understood GWS instead decided to stockpile draft picks and plan for a prosperous future time down the track, rather than recruit established big names to chase quick wins now.
But Sheedy steadfastly denies that is the case, instead turning the blowtorch onto clubs who refused to take a chance on some budding superstars.
AFL.com.au understands Collingwood's Dale Thomas, Carlton's Matthew Kreuzer and Essendon's Jake Carlisle are three names the Giants targeted.
What they could offer in return was access to Jaeger O'Meara and Jack Martin in the AFL's 'mini-draft' of 17-year-olds, which was intended to give GWS experienced talent.
But the Pies, Blues and Bombers weren't prepared to roll the dice, according to Sheedy, with Gold Coast ultimately landing both O'Meara and Martin by giving up picks two and four in the national draft to the Giants.
Asked if GWS must recruit more experienced players after the Crows' mauling, Sheedy replied: "There's no doubt about that – and we tried to.
"We had two players that we could offer – O'Meara and Martin – and no AFL club wanted to offer a really good, senior, experienced player that we thought we should have got."
And Sheedy believes it is a decision the established Melbourne clubs will learn to rue.
"Over the next three or four years (other clubs are) going to suffer a severe penalty for not taking O'Meara or young Martin," he said.
"Gold Coast have them both now because they were prepared to give out their early choice.
"What I think is going to happen here is, these two players (O'Meara and Martin) are going to be absolute superstars.
"And other AFL clubs, particularly Melbourne AFL clubs, never had the guts and the courage to let a player go worthwhile to pick up a young superstar – and they'll suffer the penalty."
O'Meara has made an outstanding start to 2013 and is one of the frontrunners for this year's NAB Rising Star award.
Like O'Meara last season, Martin is ineligible to compete this year due to his age, but Suns coach Guy McKenna admitted in the pre-season he would already be in his best 22 players.
Sheedy mischievously stated he hopes to still be around in the coming years so he can witness firsthand the mistake made by opposition clubs.
"These are two draft selection picks we were given to trade on and they both ended up at a start-up club," Sheedy said.
"There wasn't a lot of courage in the other clubs who have been around for quite some time.
"I hope I'll be around for the next five years to have a good look at them play and maybe (the other clubs) might just suffer a penalty one day.
"That's how smart you have to be, you have to offer a good player to get a superstar."