The question of an AFL team in Tasmania has been regularly asked over recent years, but HQ has never looked likely to seriously entertain the possibility.
Why? The simple reason is that Tasmania is full of AFL fans who already buy merchandise, purchase memberships and watch the game (and most importantly, the ad breaks) on telly.
Putting a team there wouldn’t be courting a new market in the way that establishing teams on the Gold Coast and in Western Sydney has been.
It’d be a fitting recognition of the passion of Tasmanian fans – but without a financial incentive, the AFL isn’t keen.
Australian rules’ presence in Tasmania has many more problems though than just the lack of a team in the state. In February the Burnie Dockers, a Tasmanian State League team with history dating back to the 19th century, was forced to pull out of the league.
The TSL, Tasmania’s highest level of competition for Aussie Rules football, had ten teams across the state during the 2013 season. Flash forward five years later and it has dwindled to just seven.
Young talent coming into the AFL system from the state looks to be at risk of drying up too. There’s been just one Tasmanian drafted to the league in the last two years.
Gillon McLachlan said at the AFL’s season launch three weeks ago that the league won’t abandon Tasmania, but since then we haven’t heard news of any real action being taken to support Australian rules football in the state.
Meanwhile, the AFL lobbed $38.5 million at Gold Coast and GWS last year alone and reported a net surplus of $60 million dollars in 2017. Gold Coast’s schmicko training facilities, opened last year, set them back $22 million.
How long can Tasmanian fans be expected to keep supporting the game if the AFL turns a blind eye to them yet continues to lob fistfuls of cash at the mostly uninterested population north of the Barassi line?
I lived in the state for four years during my uni days and for all the cracks that can be leveled at the place (and there are plenty), there can be no doubting just how much Tasmanians love their sport.
One only needs to look at the strong support that is enjoyed by the Hobart Hurricanes, the only representation Tasmanians enjoy in any of Australia’s major sporting leagues.
(Photo by Scott Barbour – CA/Cricket Australia/Getty Images)
Tasmanians turn out in good numbers for the AFL games that are brought to the state by Hawthorn and North Melbourne also, but support would be even stronger for a side that is genuinely their team.
You could put a Quidditch team there and people would get around it. Tasmania has so much love to give.
I noted with interest last week that the A-League is now taking expressions of interest for expansion, and because of all I’ve talked about above, Tasmania is an option they would be foolish not to consider.
It’s an opportunity to do something dauntless and daring, to take an audacious crack at pinching away the hearts and minds of a traditional Australian rules state right out from under the nose of the AFL.
Call them the Tasmanian Tigers or Devils and split their games between Hobart and Launceston. Invest heavily in supporting the game at a grassroots level, particularly for the kids. Tell Tasmania that the AFL might not care enough to give them a team – but you do.
People will get involved, I guarantee it.
Out of respect to those who are more diehard followers of the A-League than I, I won’t read you out my laundry list of things the league needs to fix (okay just one quickly – the season goes for far too long). You probably know better than me the issues at hand.
But speaking as an outsider, I must tell you that pumping new teams into obscure parts of regional NSW could not possibly do less to pique the interest on a national level of potential new fans like me.
As sports fans surely we can agree that whatever game we love, they are all built on passion. And there are so many passionate people in Tasmania just waiting for a team to call their own.
At least have a think about it.
Republican
Guest
.......less far flung than Brisbane, Townsville, Cairns & Perth. Melbourne to Hobart is quicker than flying to Sydney truth be told.......
Republican
Guest
.........oh please, watch the GWS space and what about the GC & Brisbane Lions? Hardly success stories commercially or otherwise..........
Republican
Guest
......the contradiction and double standard continues unabated around the definition of 'Commercial viability'. I would ask contributors who continue to excuse themselves on behalf of the AFL (who's custodianship of the code is a ruse), why is it that they consider GWS, GC and any mooted expansion to the most ludicrous of all places, NZ, more viable than Tassie or the ACT? The AFL empire continue to throw good money after bad on these plastic entities while placating and appeasing true demographics with the likes of the Greater Western Sydney Giants. Now someone enlighten me please, how is the acronym GWS even remotely symbolic culturally, geographically or commercially with the nations capital? Ours have long been robust footy options to expand to, where the footy DNA has been established for over 100 years and this is why the AFL and respective leeching 'clubs' are expedient of both. We are in essence their 'commercial' safety nets.
Rolly
Guest
Is that for the whole state thats not much the illawarra region in Wollongong in NsW has that many registred players that's one region .
Rolly
Guest
If the AFL is not interested then you know it won't work for any code any sport .
Old Greg
Guest
My only concerns with a Tasmanian team (it'll probably be based in Hobart) are where are the players going to come from? The only Tasmanians I know of who have played in the A-League are Jeremy Walker, Josh Hope and Nathaniel Atkinson.
Kangajets
Guest
He likes Morwell Falcons
chris
Guest
Does that concern you?
chris
Guest
tommo is that tongue in cheek? The overwhelming majority is actually AFL people like yourself telling others whats wrong with their sport.
Nemesis
Guest
"Need to get out and recruit crowds to make the number reasonable." Why? How will that help the finals? Either the sporting contest will be good, or it won't. Having 1 million people watching "I Want To Sleep With Your Wife" doen't make it a good TV show. It just means people in Australia are happy to watch rubbish.
tommo
Guest
No crowds through the gates and nobody watching equals no money coming in equals no competition.
tommo
Guest
Always a laugh to read about soccer people telling us about the problems with other football codes. Are the finals not coming up? Need to get out and recruit crowds to make the number reasonable.
tommo
Guest
Fuss has a bad habit of looking for fault in others. Pity he doesn't look in a mirror more often.
Post_hoc
Roar Rookie
Chris, not doubt that is what he was referring to, but we all get tired of correcting these neanderthals, plus I really really wanted to find an excuse to post the story about the Blackhawkes back up, back up goalie lol
Post_hoc
Roar Rookie
for someone who 'likes' football you constantly post negative opinions. So excuse me if I find it hard to accept that you 'like' football when all the evidence indicates the opposite
realfootball
Guest
I see GWS are more like the dead albatross hung around the neck of the Ancient Mariner.
realfootball
Guest
Good Lord - "my study is going good". So much for the tertiary education system, AD.
Post_hoc
Roar Rookie
I could, and one day i may, but until then I enjoy reading what knowledgeable people have to say, that's how I learn. When I come across people who clearly know less than I and yet feel the need to 'enlighten' all of us, or know zero about the game I call them out on it. I don't pretend I am something else, I don't pretend I am a virus who tries to trick the host into thinking they are something else. If I go onto the AFL tabs, I am quite forthcoming that I don't think much of the game. But I do that very rarely. Why you insist on pretending to be something you are not escapes me, it indicates to me you must be a rather sad individual. I suggest you make some improvements in your life, you may just find that you lead a more fulfilling one. Be true to yourself
Nemesis
Guest
All will be revealed on 31 July 2018 & a new era will commence at the EGM in September 2018. Before then we have: - Women's Asian Cup - ALeague Grand Final - Men's World Cup - NPL state champions to be decided - NPL national champion to be decided Lots happening in AUS football.
realfootball
Guest
G, I would question that 4-5k. Agree that Fox will not be interested, and that this will kill idea stone dead regardless of other factors. It's an AFL state through and through. It's more like NZ that the rest of Australia, in that, as with rugby in NZ, no other sport is in sight in terms of the social consciousness. And I'm confident that the AFL know exactly what they are doing in regard to Tasmania.