When restrictions are lifted and WA leave their borders closed, could they send Freo and Eagles to Tasmania and set up camp there?
Weren’t they the Mariners?
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Yes. My mistake. The Devils played in the VFL.
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Yeah it would be the devils with the devils VFL strip. (although that was pretty horrid from memory)…
With green, gold and black they aren’t clashing with anyone else either.
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We can talk about it as much as we like but the AFL cannot see any money in it for them. Only when they can see the dollar signs in their eyes will it happen.
Personally, I would love Tassy to have a team. I have several friends who haved moved to Tassy from NSW. They have always been mad rugby league supporters and all said they would follow an AFL team in Tassy if they had one.
I would simply not be able to resist sticking it up them like they have me for years.
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Bass by-election says hi.
Gough’s “Hello Newman” moment.
U18s
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Any have a Herald Sun access about the Tassie article that could post. Ta
Why Tasmania is prepared to turn its back on AFL after years of neglect
Once a rusted on football heartland, the AFL is in danger of losing a disenchanted Tasmania to rival sports unless there’s an urgent intervention.
November 26, 2020 - 7:00PM
News Corp Australia Sports Newsroom
AFL chief Gillon McLachlan could lose Tasmania to another sport. Picture: Chris Kidd
Gillon McLachlan’s legacy could be as the first AFL chief executive to lose a heartland football state to another sport.
The big ticks of the AFLW and getting a season completed in a worldwide pandemic would be offset by the loss of Tasmania under his watch.
The reality now is a talented Tasmanian athlete is more likely to be an Australian Test captain than a Brownlow medallist – and in the future it could be an NBL MVP instead of the AFL equivalent.
How would that sit with the AFL executive and the commission?
This is not hyperbole, but the facts facing the AFL and the situation in Tasmania.
This is the recommendation from the Tasmanian Government’s own AFL Task force – compromising leaders of business and football greats – aimed at bringing an AFL licence to the state.
Its business case debunked every myth, answered every critic, yet still the AFL wouldn’t listen so now the Task force has become so disillusioned it believes the only action is to treat the AFL as it has treated the state – ignore it and move on.
Years of neglect and contempt are coming back to haunt the AFL.
While league HQ fiddled with AFLX and games in China, the sport in Tasmania has been dying a slow death.
Richmond premiership star Jack Riewoldt is a product of Tasmania. Picture: Michael Klein
McLachlan is aware of the challenges, having chaired an AFL steering committee into Tasmanian football in 2018.
Interest and participation (outside of female football) has been in decline.
While the Task force business case says Australian rules is still the most popular sport, it says without an AFL team it will be surpassed within a decade — and that was before the announcement of the Tasmanian JackJumpers joining the NBL.
The standard has also dropped markedly.
In a brief moment in time during the mid to late 1990s, Tasmania’s statewide league could lay claim as the strongest league outside the AFL as the state league team defeated the WAFL, SANFL and the then VFA in the space of four years.
The last time Tasmania played one of the big three, in 2012, the state lost by 108 points at home to a VFL side with no AFL listed players.
In 2016, for the first time ever, no Tasmanian was taken in the national draft. This sad feat was repeated just three years later in 2019.
Players not taken from the under-18s are now forced to go interstate to pursue an AFL career as the local state league is not considered strong enough to gauge a player’s true worth.
This is the path that forced the likes of Ben Brown and Brody Mihocek interstate and onto AFL lists via the VFL.
Fans would have been denied Jeremy Howe’s hangers had footy been lost to Tasmania. Picture: Mark Stewart
Royce Hart is one of four Tasmanian AFL Legends.
The Hawthorn and North Melbourne contracts, while fulfilling their aims as economic drivers during the winter months via interstate tourism, have done nothing for the game here.
Not one dollar from the Hawks or Roos contacts – worth more than $8 million a year to the two Melbourne clubs – or from revenue raised on game day (ticket sales, merchandise, stadium advertising and hospitality) goes back into the local game.
If the loss of the nation’s smallest state is not significant to Australia’s biggest and richest domestic sport ask yourself, is the game richer for Jack Riewoldt’s emotions?
For Jeremy Howe’s hangers?
For Ben Brown’s goal kicking routine?
For Mitch Robinson’s kamikaze attack on ball and opponent?
For Grant Birchall’s laser left foot?
For Tarryn Thomas’s potential?
For Chris Fagan’s warmth and honesty?
For Brendon Gale’s leadership that built a Richmond premiership dynasty?
Tasmanian David Noble was recently appointed as North Melbourne’s new coach. Picture: Michael Klein
The loss of a state that has produced four Australian football Hall of Fame legends (the same total as Western Australia and South Australia combined).
This is what the game stands to lose.
Just last week, North Melbourne handed over the reins to Tasmanian David Noble – perhaps its most important appointment in the Roos recent history given the club’s woes.
For an example of how the AFL views Tasmania, take a look at the official Hall of Fame website.
For its legends section, the original clubs for players from WA and SA are listed, but only the VFL clubs for Darrel Baldock, Peter Hudson, Royce Hart and Ian Stewart – with no mention of the Tasmanian clubs that nurtured these players that went on to enhance the code.
Tasmania has played the long game, has presented business case after case, has turned up to games, has provided talent and money to the AFL – yet is still no closer to having its own team.
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The only option left is to turn off the rivers of gold to football and embrace a sport that embraces the state and see if that gets the AFL’s attention.
Tasmanians will be hurt by the decision to turn its back on the AFL, but they are already hurting and so it is time to play hardball with the big league.
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Gil hears ya.
Gil don’t care.
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best thing for the state to do, to be honest
I hope they’re legit about it because it’s not going to work as a PR or negotiation tactic. state governments can only really support sustainable growth of a sport through facility building/development. it would be all well and good to say “we’re not building any more footy grounds”, but there’s that pesky other still-popular sport that uses the same facilities.
I reckon there’s more chance of an A-League team in Tasmania than an AFL team, but the chances of that happening are slim at best.
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Someone let the NRL know that if they want to send a massive middle finger to Gil, there’s a state that has produced hard blokes for generations, looking for a game to play.
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if they weren’t a bunch of absolute morons there would have been a Tasmanian team about seven years ago. instead they’re trapped in a stupid mindset of “capture as many fans as possible as soon as we can” instead of “build sustainable localised markets of fans”
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A footy club at AFL level would actually help grow the state I reckon.
But you know the AFL barons that be seem to only care about they can take out of a community.
There are sides in west sydney and gold coast because there are more people to leech off.
Ever crossed the AFLs mind that a side in Tasmania make it a more attractive destination for people to move too. Also adds to the culture of our national game.
Id also like to see a territory side.
They could be riverina and NT kids playing their spring and autumn games in Canberra and their winter games in Darwin/Alice at night.
That is Aussie Rules land.
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Don’t tell me the Tassie Govt is going to gift 200 hectares to some international private company that runs a soccer club as a sideline so that company can on sell the left over land for a few billion dollars profit?
It’s happening at Wyndham so why not in Tassie?
Well put.
They care only about what they can take from a community, rather than what they can give to a community (which is after all, the purpose of organised sport really)
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That’s exactly the kind of article that you write when you have a proposal from a rival code that you are considering.
Or possibly have already signed up.
Interesting times.
Absolutely! I wonder how many North and Hawks fans get down to games in Tassie. There’d be a few, but how many actually get to all 4-6 respectively each year? Maybe only a handful. Imagine there being a Tassie team who then host 11 other teams each year and those teams change a little each year amongst the remaining 17-18 clubs. Personally, I would consider it a good weekend away every year if the Dons were playing down in Launceston or Hobart and I’m sure there’d be plenty of fans that think the same way too.
I don’t really get the “weekend away” vibes from Western Sydney
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What? A weekend away touring around Campbelltown, Blacktown, Parramatta and Penrith doesn’t light your candle? What lofty standards you must have… 
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