Gillon McLachlan pledges AFL's support for Tasmania

It’s the response you get when someone from a parasitic little town full that can’t pay its way does something stupid like demand their own football team Canberra - the home of politicians and public servants gets its own team ahead of poor old Tasmania. Yeah I can see why the afl wouldn’t be rushing to put that decision up in lights

.........GWS is an acronym for Greater Western Sydney. GWS has no affinity symbolically or culturally with the ACT whatsoever. Your response reminds me of the AFL's placating platitudes to justify their expedience of us.........

You have your own team, it's called the GWS Giants

......the ACT should also cease with being held to ransom by the AFL and GWS in this respect. We also deserve our own stand alone team and certainly ahead of any pie in the sky, NZ option. What an insult that would be......

........yeah right. Thats the GK that wanted to privatise ALL of Melbourne if I recall accurately. GK also wants a team in NZ, so anyone who supports that at the expedience of our loyal heartlands is of the same ilk as far as I'm concerned........

........really?

.......just waiting for the blatant double standard from GM and AFL messres, when the next expansion is announced as NZ. The AFL's criteria for established footy demographics i.e. Tassie, the ACT et el is contrary to non footy ones as they throw good $ after bad on illusions i.e. GWS, GC and quite likely next, NZ. The AFL are no longer fit to fill the role of custodians of our great game. They are more akin to multinational empire builders motivated by a commercial criteria to aggressively grow the brand, which flies in the face of anything virtuous or inherent of a duty of care for the code. In that respect the AFL are an oxymoron.......

I have also attempted to draw that distinction between Tassie League and an AFL team. As for needing AFL support (i.e $$$) they are getting $2.5m including $100k per club. That is higher than most leagues. Throughout this article quoting people on the ground there are very few calls for money, or even AFL help. They point to lack of player numbers, the need to salary cap lower level leagues, even that there is over supply of teams. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-20/tasmanian-football-struggling-to-survive-chris-rowbottom/9562162 I can understand why the AFL wouldn't throw more money at a league that has problems they need to address themselves but can't / won't.

In return? Who paid for the upgrades? It WASN'T the Hawks or NM. It was the tax payer, as usual. The two AFL clubs are here for the money. They don't care about anything else. Nor do they contribute to Tasmanian football, or the facilities. Not a single red cent.

What is the NEAFL then? Darwin to Canberra? Its not as if Burnie travel to Hobart each week FCS. Get some perspective at least.

There already is no attendance at TSL games. Unlike SA and WA, where the VFL/AFL didn't totally destroy local comps until after teams were admitted - and hasn't yet been total in either - Tasmania has been VFL only for anyone born from about the 1970s onwards. Its not like pre-Eagles or pre-Crows environment where people supported their local teams first, and also watched some VFL with less interest. The first state league (starting in 1986) did revive things somewhat, but clubs overspent in the exoectation that the revival would be lasting. By the mid 1990s, Sandy Bay had folded, Southern Cats created from nothing and were about to fold. By the end of the 1990s, the TFL had folded - partly so the AFL could sell live Saturday afternoon games into the tiny market. I did write something about the impending disaster the second state league was in a couple of years back, but The Roar editors refused it twice. They probably could not believe that the same people who approved the ten teams following "due diligence" were then hell-bent just five years later on either booting or destroying four of them because of finances. Do not, ever, confuse the issues with state league and local footy with an AFL team. The two are very, very different. Footy in Tasmania needs support. An AFL team is not going to happen and while "deserving" the AFL looks at finances and growth for new clubs. Tasmania can provide neither of those, at least one is required.

People don't like to think.

Tasmania chooses to pay Hawthorn millions of dollars to play 4 games there a year and be it’s major sponsor. In return, Launceston Oval got a multi-million dollar upgrade. North followed suit with Hobart, and Bellerive got a similar upgrade. Tassie isn’t getting ripped off as people like to think.

Disingenuous

I would interested to see how you would view pongas hit. No arms all shoulder, prevented a certain try and he is being hailed for putting his body on the line.

Tasmania needs to stop paying the likes of Hawthorn and North to play down there. This will in time bankrupt one or both clubs thus freeing up a license for potentially a Tassie club. I would use the money being wasted on those clubs on an All Tassie side. Playing 6 matches in Hobart and 5 in. Launny. Alternate the next year. If the Gold Coast has a side, then Tassie would be at least double that. Tasmania needs to believe in itself and cough up the dough. Tax the poker machines more to fund it.

The Giants were manufactured for a Giant area that no AFL team was servicing, Sydney is to big for just the Swans.

Gees, the Qld Intrust super cup has league sides from Burleigh on the Gold Coast up to PNG, travel comes with the sporting territory. I agree the Suns & Giants are a waste of space, every home game for the Suns is an opportunity for a retired relocated Victorian to go and see their VFL club play live. The Giants were manufactured to eat into the NRL high growth junior base in western Sydney, not sure if it's had any impact.

Yep, deliberately waited until after the state election so he could float requests for government funding to boost Victorian club coffers and he'll then use any reluctance by the government to throw money at sport instead of essential services as leverage to gain browny points for the VFL (oops, AFL).

In GWS/GC it should drive junior registrations, it won't necessarily drive attendance at local league matches. In Tasmania I think we will see what we have seen happen in the SANFL/WAFL where local attendance in the state league will fall with people choosing to watch Tasmania play. The VFL clubs in particular have struggled in the face of being wedged between strong local teams and the national league.