WE NEED OUR OWN TEAM

ALL indicators suggest that footy is heading for a day of reckoning in Tasmania. There has been a long, slow slide out of love with the code for a number of reasons but when the state’s own Premier is suggesting AFL is in “decay” in Tasmania, it’s a sure sign things are going devastatingly wrong.

Peter Gutwein, who once upon a time was an accomplished player, has issued an ultimatum to the AFL’s Melbourne-based big wigs.

We’ve run a taskforce, we have a business case that stacks up and we want our own team.

The state government has a five-year $19m deal with Hawthorn to play five games a year in Tasmania.

It expires at the end of this year. North Melbourne receives about $3m a year from the government-owned Bass Strait ferry operator TT-Line, which also ends this year.

Mr Gutwein will not finalise the arrangements for the next contract with Hawthorn or North Melbourne until we have clarity about a licence for a Tasmanian team.

“I want to see an outcome. Tasmania is part of the Federation and you cannot have a truly national Australian Football League if one of the states doesn’t have a team in it,” he said earlier this week.

The comments came as Mr Gutwein said he would set his sights on a potential Tasmanian A-League team.

On the back of the formation of the new NBL team, the Jack Jumpers, Mr Gutwein’s view is that no sporting competition is truly national unless it has a Tasmanian team in its ranks.

“You can’t have a national competition in any sport, and call it a truly national competition, unless a state like Tasmania plays a part,” he said.

The AFL can shrug this off as mere politics but Mr Gutwein is a popular Premier and it’s about so much more than that when you look at the state of footy in Tasmania.

There has been an exodus from the TSL and the best of the best players have been forced to move.

The league has been struggling for some years now but that it can’t attract or retain players is a major issue that is indicative of a deeper problem that’s making footy less and less attractive to Tasmanians.

That came to a head in December when no Tasmanians were drafted to the AFL.

In today’s Mercury we report that North Melbourne will try to help youngsters shine in front of recruiters with a partnership allowing eight players to play a handful of games in the new VFL competition.

It’s a positive step but it’s not going to light a fire and ignite renewed support for footy in our state.

We’ve said it so many times before, but if the league wants to keep Tasmanians onside there is only one answer and that is for our state to have its own team.