Western Sydney Wanderers marquee signing Shinji Ono is a big drawcard for fans. Picture: Gregg Porteous. Source: The Daily Telegraph
THIS derby will never be settled on the field but it is arguably the most intriguing battle Australian football will ever see.
It is the tale of two football codes - one is global football while the other is Australian-made.
Western Sydney Wanderers v Greater Western Sydney Giants, Australian Football League v Football Federation Australia.
This sports turf war is played out west of Sydney nearly 50km from Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Introducing the Wanderers, the A-League's newest club, to the people of western Sydney was a walk in the park. But selling the AFL's Giants - the Australian game's newest club - to the area is as hard as selling ice to an Eskimo.
The Wanderers were born last May, the Giants were founded in 2009.
GWS Giants' Chad Cornes kicks a goal and celebrates a win over former club Port Adelaide, one of the fledgling club's few victories last year. Picture: Mark Evans.
The western Sydney area is Australia's third largest economy behind Sydney and Melbourne.
The area houses 2.02 million people, a population larger than SA.
By 2036 about 2.96 million will live there.
About 30 per cent of the people have migrated to the area from other countries, more than 70 languages are spoken and about 30 per cent of the people are currently under the age of 24.
Western Sydney has been a breeding ground for the most famous Socceroos since coach Rale Rasic led Australia to the 1974 FIFA World Cup in West Germany.
Harry Kewell, Tim Cahill, Mark Schwarzer, Mark Bosnich, Paul Okon, Zeljko Kalac, Steve Corica and current Wanderers coach Tony Popovic all grew up and learnt their football in western Sydney before making their mark abroad.
The AFL on the other hand has a 20-year plan to make western Sydney a production line for the Australian game.
There's no doubt the universal language for the growth area is football.
But which one are punters flocking to? Which football will survive?
Wanderers' executive chairman Lyall Gorman was born out west of Sydney in Bankstown where he played football and attended high school.
He helped grow Central Coast Mariners from an embryo in 2004 to a well-established community club armed with massive projects on the central coast of New South Wales.
He was promoted to head the A-League competition in 2010 before FFA put him in charge of an ambitious football project west of Sydney.
After the FFA made the announcement that a new western Sydney team will join the 2012-13 competition on May 26 last year, Gorman and his tight-knit small team had just 134 days before the new club made its A-League debut on October 6 against, ironically, the Mariners.
It was a 0-0 draw where 10,458 fans turned up at Parramatta Stadium.
The first block had been laid after the club's football foundations had been put down 133 years ago.
"Well, August 14, 1880 was the first game of football in western Sydney. It was played between two teams, the old Kings school and the club called the Wanderers, and its been the traditional heartland of football ever since," Gorman said.
"You know in this area immediate football association partners roughly have about 100,000 players within their ranks, they have major sporting schools.
"It's had a richer history since the 1970s with the national soccer league with Marconi, Sydney United, Parramatta and I've sort of taken the view we've been handed the baton.
"We stand on the shoulders of many pioneers before us who have put in a tremendous amount of work to imbed the cultures and traditions of football in this region.
"Time was never our friend. These people working here are spending, from day one, seven days a week. Our staff are remarkable for their contribution and passion.
"Every single one of our staff all fit that same vision and culture.
"We've also been blessed with long-term sponsors and coach Tony Popovic has been locked in for a four-year term.
"We're all joined at the hip and four years will make or break this club.
"Our decision making is easy because we've got clarity of vision and culture.
"It either fits or it doesn't and the next opportunity is to consolidate where we are and take it to new levels."
Giants' chief executive David Matthews believes football, Aussie Rules and rugby league can live in harmony out west of Sydney and the fledgling AFL club would continue to reap rewards by capturing the region in a long-term plan.
The Giants played their first AFL season last year and had no inkling the FFA was set to invade the western turf with Wanderers after the death of Queensland club Gold Coast United.
FFA needed a 10th team not only to balance the A-League's fixtures but because a new TV rights deal was looming.
If FFA took nine teams to the negotiation table it's highly unlikely Fox Sports and SBS would have thrown about $160 million towards a four-year TV agreement.
Matthews has been in charge of the Giants for the past 14 months after he was part of the AFL executive for 14 years.
His Giants contract was extended for a further three-year term last October.
Matthews knows the club was positioned in an area that wasn't all that familiar with the Australian game.
"The point the AFL has made about the investment in greater western Sydney is that it's a generational investment," Matthews said.
"It's a long-term strategy.
"The Sydney Swans have been in Sydney for 30 years and the AFL has been investing in the development from an infrastructure and a community point from about 10 years.
"The oldest Auskick graduate is now about 18 here so there's this generation of families that we're connecting and coming through.
"The Wanderers introduction we understand the size of the market is one for all sports with rugby league here as well.
"We've got the problems that everyone has got in Australia, and that's getting kids off the couch and a lot of the kids that are playing are playing multiple sports.
"We need to collaborate with soccer, league and rugby union and what sport they choose and want to attend depends on the quality of the experience."
But Gorman believes Wanderers will continue to set new standards for the area because of football tradition and the amount of new Australians arriving in the area already familiar with the world game.
"If you read the AFL they have a 20-year plan because what they don't have is a natural fit," Gorman said.
"It's a bit of a square peg in a round hole.
"They don't have the junior pipeline and a rich history whereas the western Sydney region has been crying put for its own national representation for a long, long time.
"We've been blessed with that and with seven wonderful football associations with whom we dedicate all of our energy trying to be the panacea of all the Sydney metropolitan area.
"We've held seven fans forums before the club was born and listened to them and what they wanted us to represent and the values and culture would be."
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