Platitudes and broken promises bring
are passionate about footy. For generations, Tasmanian families have played, barracked and volunteered at countless suburban and country games around the state.
Nothing gets footy fans more fired up than the conversation about how our wonderful football state has been treated by the AFL in our quest for a team of our own.
The excuses for why we can’t have a team have come thick and fast over many years.
They say we don’t have the stadiums, we don’t have the crowds, or we don’t have the population to support a team. The lines are as predictable as they are untrue given our
David O’Byrne
years of experience of hosting AFL games.
They say we won’t get enough members, yet the number of AFL club members from Tasmania, without our own team, is larger than the total membership of a number of existing clubs.
Through the Tassie Hawks and North Melbourne, many Tasmanians are members of more than one club in order to lock away game tickets. You can only imagine the rush for memberships for a genuinely Tasmanian side, not to mention the thousands of expat Tasmanians that live in Victoria and beyond.
The AFL says we can’t afford it, yet the subsidies it has thrown at the Gold Coast Suns and GWS Giants would rival what’s been spent on the Mars explorer. In the context of a $2.5 billion broadcast rights deal and annual receipts of half a billion dollars, this is clearly not about dollars.
Outgoing AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick used the supposed North-South divide as the excuse for our snubbing. While Tasmanians are loyal to their home towns, there is no evidence we wouldn’t barrack as one for a Tassie team playing home games North and South and proudly wearing the map of Tassie.
When they’ve run out of excuses they humour us by assuring us we are the next cab off the rank, yet AFL CEO Gill McLachlan has said perhaps New Zealand is the next in line — as if they’ve learnt nothing from Australian Rugby League’s slow walk away from our cousin to the right.
The campaign for Tasmania’s own AFL team is important for many reasons and the success of our current AFL partners, Hawthorn and North Melbourne, shows why.
It is important because of the social, health and wellbeing impact on young Tasmanians inspired by the programs being run in our schools and communities around the state by AFL stars.
It is important because of the economic impact it has on the economy with thousands of people coming to Tasmania and spending their dollars in winter, at a time when other forms of tourism slow.
Fundamentally, AFL activity inspires Tasmanians to have a go — it turns casual jobs into permanent jobs and it turns part-time jobs into fulltime jobs with the economic multiplier in play.
It builds our culture through the excitement and fun that it creates when there’s a game on. The scarfs and beanies being worn around the streets and opposing teams engaging in good-natured banter make our communities richer.
Quite simply, it puts smiles on thousands of faces.
Having a team of our own with all the staff and support services not only locks in the millions of dollars of benefits to the Tassie economy but magnifies the impact being felt by the current arrangements.
Combine this with the dozen specialised coaches of an AFL club working with our junior football players, AFLlisted players running around in the TSL, lifting the standard and interest in the local league and the creation of a real and tangible pathway and increased professionalism in our local game, and the benefits compound.
It is clear that the establishment of an AFL team