Coach urges state to work hard towards dream

JUST like the mantra he lived by in his nine years, five grand finals and four premierships at Hawthorn, Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan says that if Tasmania tries hard enough for long enough it will get a team in the AFL.

And watching that team run onto the MCG for the first time would be a dream come true for the lad from Tasmania’s West Coast.

“It will be brilliant — one of the happiest days of my life, I reckon,” Fagan said.

“I always believe if you want something bad enough and you work hard enough, you’ll get it in the end.

“We’ve got to stay steady and understand there will be a few roadblocks on the way, but eventually we’ll get one.”

Fagan is impressed with the AFL Taskforce that is driving the state closer to an AFL team, and the unitedwestand.com.au site gathering pledges of support, already up to 21,000 — eclipsing the 2019 memberships of Gold Coast Suns (13,649) and closing in on Brisbane (30,109).

“There is a good group of people behind it, there is a lot of public interest and there seems to be an appetite from the AFL — I think they at least like the concept,” Fagan said.

“In their hearts I think they feel Tasmania deserves to be in there, it’s just a matter of finding a way.

“It would be a good thing if we could get 50,000 people to sign on to unitedwe(28,023) and GWS stand.com.au so we need to get that number up to show there is a lot of interest in the team from the public, so don’t be apathetic about it,” Fagan said. “Every person signed on will count.

“The quality of the plan the taskforce produces is going to be really important and I have no doubt that is going to be top quality.

“As a state we’ve got to stay united on it and not become divided. It has got to be a team for all Tasmanians We’ve got to put the regionalism behind us, that’s critical as well.”

Fagan has been in the AFL system since becoming assistant coach at Melbourne from 1999-2007. He feels the love for his home state everywhere he goes.

“A lot of people think there should be a team from Tasmania — in fact most people I know in football think that,” he said. “It’s a common view and it has been held for quite some time.”