The AFL are playing us for fools — BRAD STANSFIELD

The AFL is playing us for fools. One of the number one rules of politics is if you want something for your community or your electorate, ask for it, fight for it, and don’t give up until you get it — something a surprisingly small number of elected politicians seem to understand.

Similarly, when it comes to a Tasmanian AFL team, it’s time for all involved to stop supplicating ourselves before AFL House and to ask for our own team, to fight for our own team.

And to keep fighting for it — until we get it.

This should start with calling out the AFL’s endless obfuscating and excusemaking for what it is.

For years we have heard the same weasel words and fools’ errands thrown at us from AFL House, that we will have our own team “at some time in the future” and “when we get our own house in order”.

Let’s get real. There’s no doubt our local Aussie rules competitions have their challenges — but no more than does regional football in rural Victoria. Struggling regional competitions are not a reason to cull AFL teams in Victoria, any more than they are an excuse not to have an AFL team from Tasmania.

I’ve got no doubt we could have the strongest regional leagues in the country and the AFL would still find some other excuse as to why Tasmania “isn’t ready just yet”.

The truth is, the AFL sees Tasmania as nothing more than a useful TV market, a membership base for existing Victorian-based teams, and a breeding ground for AFL players — with a State Government cash-cow to boot.

Simply, they take us for granted, and will continue to do so unless we stand up for ourselves.

Sadly, we are starting to see the same approach from Cricket Australia. Our annual Test match has been taken away — unlikely to be returned — and we are now expected to bid against the other states for international cricket content.

And that’s a bidding war we can never win. For evidence, witness the games we have been allocated for the 2020 World Cup.

To their credit, in recent months, the State Government has taken some steps in the right direction on the AFL decision.

The appointment of the respected Jim Wilkinson MLC to head the new Tasmanian Football Board was a real positive, accompanied as it was by the announcement of a yetto-be formed sub-committee to progress the case for an AFL team.

But that alone will not be enough to break the impasse. And so it is good that, as reported on page 1 of this newspaper today, the State Government is taking more decisive action.

Conveniently, both the Hawthorn and North Melbourne contracts expire in 2021. The Government should act decisively and publicly make it known that neither contract will be renewed beyond that time.

Instead, the total taxpayer funds directed to AFL — in the order of $7 million a year — should be made available for a Tasmanian team.

Add in the undisclosed amount provided by Momentum Energy (owned by Hydro Tasmania) to Geelong, plus the $25 million promised during last year’s Braddon byelection by the incoming Shorten Federal Labor Government, and the claims that there are not the funds available to support a local team are demonstrably fallacious.

As are the claims that a local team wouldn’t get the required corporate support — of course it would — and not just from local businesses in what is after all a national competition.

The building blocks for an AFL team are already in place, with the AFL already begrudgingly agreeing to a new VFL team to commence in

2021. It doesn’t take much of a leap to foresee this team transitioning into a fullyfledged AFL team of our own by say, 2023.

The so-called “regional differences” red herring the AFL like to talk about can easily be got around by basing the team in Launceston, with say at least three games a year in Hobart (the same number that North Melbourne currently plays). Now, I’m the first to say that it’s important for the Government to stick to its knitting and to focus on delivering on the things that matter for Tasmanians — health, cost of living, balancing economic growth with protecting the precious Tasmanian way of life. But I also think that it’s possible to walk and chew gum at the same time.

There is already widespread latent support for Tasmania having an AFL team of our own, and not just in Tasmania.

In fact, you’d be hardpressed to find a Victorian who doesn’t think it’s a good idea — and who wouldn’t adopt a Tassie team as their second favourite.

Equally, there are any number of high profile football commentators who support the cause. Nobody would begrudge our well known AFL tragic and Geelong-supporting Premier from aggressively pursuing the issue. Because this isn’t just about whether or not we have our own AFL team. It is, more than anything else, a matter of Tasmanian state pride.

The opportunity exists for the Government to seize the moment and to deliver our own AFL team. The football is in their hands. Brad Stansfield was Premier Will Hodgman’s chief of staff from 2010 to 2018. He is now a partner at the Hobart-based Font PR.

The total taxpayer funds directed to the AFL — in the order of $7 million a year — should be made available to a Tasmanian team.