GWS CEO Dave Matthews has reconfirmed the club’s interest in hosting a match for premiership points in the United States.

The Giants have previously made no secret about their desire to venture overseas and spread the AFL’s footprint beyond these shores.

Before the initial outbreak of COVID-19 in 2019, GWS investigated the possibility of hosting a home and away match in California from 2021 during Round 1.

Following the pandemic, interest was renewed with Tom Morris reporting in 2024 that the Giants were once again exploring the possibility.    

When asked by Morris if the club still had interest in going stateside for a match, Matthews admitted he still did.

But he emphasised that it needs to be the real deal rather than just an exhibition match.

“I’d be happy to play there (in the US),” Matthews told SEN’s Crunch Time.

“I think our game needs to continue to grow. That goes to my point about playing friendlies.

“If we’re going to go offshore, I’d rather take the genuine product.”

But as Matthews notes, there are still challenges, with infrastructure being the most notable.

“Obviously, you need stadiums and proper cricket grounds, which has been the issue in the US,” he elaborated.

“But we spoke to Andrew Dillon about it a little bit last week and talked about his trip to India and what he might have as an aspiration there.

“We’re a club that’s very open to any of those initiatives.”

Whilst the United States has been a place the AFL has wanted to expand its game to, Dillon has also wanted to push into markets closer to home, like India.

Earlier in the year, the AFL CEO made a trip to the country to learn more about how to try to grow the sport within the community.

While it wasn't an immediate goal, Dillon floated the possibility of a home and away match being played there down the track.

This was also an option that Matthews was open to, noting the number of past and current Australian cricketers who support the Giants, which could help market a potential match.

“I’d be open to either,” he added.

“It’s interesting because our No. 1 ticketholders are Mitch Starc and Alyssa Healy, and you look at Steve Waugh, who comes to our games a lot.

“There is a lot of cricket momentum around AFL that you could see lending itself to a huge promotion in a place like India.

“At the same time, 40 million people in California, as Kevin Sheedy has always said, should learn to love our game as well.”