This year we’ll see the debut of the Global Rapid Rugby series, the rebel rugby union tournament set up following the omission of Western Force from Super Rugby in 2017 – and it could pave the way for a Tasmanian AFL team.
Tasmania has been bidding for a licence to be part of the Australian Football League since the 1990s and regularly host home-and-away matches. St Kilda, Hawthorn, Fitzroy and North Melbourne have all played home AFL games on the Apple Isle, but the constant failure of Tasmanian bids to join the competition has become a regular fixture of the AFL.
Tasmania’s last hope was in 2008 when the AFL announced expansion plans, but the league eventually selected the Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney in states already with an AFL presence. With Tasmania and the Northern Territory still without teams of their own, they could choose to join together to create a rebel Aussie Rules league.
Tasmanians have wanted a team in the national league for years and have been knocked back every time, so it’s about time they said, “Enough is enough” and fought for entry in the AFL by forging a rebel league.
A Tasmania and Northern Territory-backed ‘Pacific Football League’ would allow the AFL to expand into the Asia-Pacific Region, something we haven’t seen happen in the AFL before. Forget AFLX – the PFL would connect everyone in the Pacific region together for a new carnival of football.
Rules would be altered to make the game more attractive to newcomers, and with the threat of the PFL becoming the premier football league in Australia, the AFL would be forced to give Tasmania and the Northern Territory a team. Other teams in the league could also come into AFL Expansion.
Tasmania and the NT would spearhead the competition with two teams each. Tasmania could have teams based in Hobart and the north of the state, while the Northern Territory could have teams in Darwin and Alice Springs. New Zealand could join the competition with teams from Auckland and Wellington, and other teams to make up the 12-team league would come from Canberra, the Sunshine Coast, Singapore, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and Fiji, with possible expansion into Indonesia, Samoa, Tonga, Japan and Sri Lanka.
This league could launch the next phase of AFL expansion even if the AFL reluctantly decides to do so. This is a quite different concept. With AFL Tasmania and AFL Northern Territory looking to have a team in the AFL in the near future, these markets need to be explored for a league that could add commercial value to the sport not only in Australia but globally as well.
Roarers, do you see a Pacific Football League as the pathway to increase the chances of teams in Tasmania or the Northern Territory?
duecer
Guest
There is no way the AFL would get the jump on PI's over RU or RL - there's just too much tradition. Vanuatu has no interest in either, don't know why they would pick up AFL. The trouble with the Pacific Islands is that you will have to put a lot, lot more in that what you will ever get out. The big benefit, of course, is the player base - with out this RU and in particular RL would be going backwards and is the major reason why RL isn't in decline here as it is in England.
Virgil Starkwell
Guest
‘Someone’, it’s just people, adults mainly, being silly. Let it go, boy.
Mark
Guest
I don’t think he is being serious. He’s making fun of Lynton’s idea.
Mark
Guest
I don’t think Randy is being serious. I think he is sending up Lynton’s idea.
Maximus Insight
Guest
Actually, that was about the only credible contribution Rowdy made in that rant. There perhaps a dozen players of African extraction on the AFL rosters. There would be at least that with Maori or PI background (including 2 of the best players in the competition in Martin and Nic Nat) It is certainly the case that PIs have a pretty broad affinity with rugby football. The idea that soccer has some monopoly on africans is nonsense though. I reckon there are four African Australians in the NBA for a start!
Someone
Roar Rookie
but likely never will happen
Someone
Roar Rookie
Are you serious? The premier league is one of the biggest leagues in the world, and, if you didn't notice, barely anyone outside of Australia plays AFL.
Someone
Roar Rookie
no delayed
josh
Guest
Islanders are going into NRL & Rugby Union. Africans are going into football. I'll wait for proof otherwise.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
I think this could happen. Victorians are the ones keeping Tas and NT out. They don’t like to give up some of their ‘piece of the pie’. They fought against Preliminary Finals being in the other 4 cities before fairness and common-sense prevailed. —– Aussie is a simple game unfettered by the strategies of the off-side games. The Islanders and Africans coming into AFL is a big bonus. Forcing the AFL’s hand could be a way of entry for the NT and Tas. —– It would also cement AFL’s dominance over the NRL. Simple fact is the AFL is rolling in dough, and can finance these teams, and the NRL has basket case teams that are on drip-support. The NRL knows they cannot put a team in Tas and NT for at least 20 years and more like 30+ years. Heck, they couldn’t even do it in Adelaide, or even Perth, which has a strong Union presence. The NRL could go to Perth by sending Cronulla there. —– I fear the ineptitude of the AFL’s management before the NRL’s threat.
RandyM
Guest
forget the pacific, why not just start a comp in Europe? the premier league, bundasliga would be dead within 5 years as everyone would flock to EuroFL.
Aphrodites
Roar Rookie
Are Islanders the right shape fot footy? Israel Folau lost significant weight to play and he was still crap
Aphrodites
Roar Rookie
Global Rapid Rugby folded today - not even Twiggy had that amount of money to waste and he was looking at creating teams in countries where Rugby had a presence/some interest
Mark
Guest
I have travelled around Fiji and can’t recall seeing any Aussie Rules fields. I haven’t been to Samoa or Tonga but I don’t think Aussie Rules has much of a profile in any of those 3 countries, or in the other nations you mention. Both rugby codes have held back from establishing a professional franchise in any of the Pacific Islands because they don’t think it will be profitable, and those codes are much more popular there than Aussie Rules is. I don’t think there is any chance of the AFL setting up a Pacific Islands league, and in any event why would Pacific Islanders who have grown up playing rugby or league suddenly decide to play a code they probably have never played before? I also note that most of the Islanders playing in the NRL were either born in Australia or have grown up here, so why would they give up playing league in Australia to play Aussie Rules on a Pacific island where they don’t live?
13th Man
Guest
Ummm the idea is great in theory but in reality its fantasy. Tasmania probably should get a side but Indonesia? New Zealand? Nah, it's just a bit too far fetched. Youngsters in Australia particularly Vic, WA and SA play AFL from a very young age. Even if the sport did become popular in other countries they are a very very long way from even being somewhat competitive to even the likes of the Gold Coast.
Nick Symonds
Guest
If the AFL started up a league in the Pacific Islands with teams representing the different nations it would be an absolute nightmare for the NRL if they started losing their islander players. If the AFL started a Pacific Islands league it could absolutely rip the guts out of the NRL. - New Zealand PNG Fiji Vanuatu Solomon Islands Tahiti Tonga Samoa New Caledonia Kiribati
Pepperoni Pizza
Guest
Dude ..... A cheech and chong reference ... awesome .. I still have that album ... somewhere ....
Papa Joe
Roar Rookie
Very ambitious Lynton. In my view, expansion generally works best when it happens organically. There are already viable clubs/competitions in Hobart, Launceston, Darwin, Alice Springs, and I can't see why any of those clubs/competitions would want to change their current structure to a much more expensive competition model, involving extensive travel. Would Hobart fans really want to see a Hobart team play Darwin, rather than their current tribal interclub games. I don't think so. The game is growing at a snails pace in NZ, SE Asia and probably the pacific countries as well. Additional support to the current administrators in those embryo AFL markets would likely increase interest quicker than a top-down introduction of a competition that no one is asking for. Floating ambitious ideas is always good though, even if it comes to naught.
Queenslander
Roar Guru
Excuse me! This website is for writers to voice their opinion, proposals and their vision for things. I am voicing a vision of what Tasmania and the NT may need to do if they are going to get an AFL team as the AFL looks in no position to grant them a team.
Jakarta Fan
Roar Rookie
Hi Lynton, keep dreaming and keep innovating! Ignore the ridicule and keep putting forward new ideas. Although I can't see it happening - for 2 reasons - finances and supporter bases - it is still worth talking about, if only to reject it in the end. The NT is at least a century away and Tassie - well - it would have been better than the Gold Coast although I understand the AFL trying to tap into the retiree market. 18 teams is already too many but again it won't decrease because profits are up. Relocating either St Kilda or North Melbourne to have the Tassie Tiger Saints or the Tassie Devil Roos which might help either of those clubs and might help give Tassie supporters their own team and reduce the number of teams in Melbourne but that is at least 20 years away!