The AFL’s platitudes about Tasmania deserving an AFL team, without any timeline for the state to actually get one, have rightly been met with derision.
“I am very disappointed with the AFL,” Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein said on Friday.
It will be remembered by Tasmanians that a Melbourne relocation was never contemplated for the Giants or the Suns, despite Sydney or Brisbane being far better suited to taking discarded teams than Tasmania.
The future of Tasmania’s multi-million-dollar sponsorship deals with Hawthorn and North Melbourne continues to hang in the balance and be the Premier’s bargaining chip for a better deal.
“We will not finalise those contracts, we will not roll them over,” he said.
Mr Gutwein insists the future of the contracts depends on getting a clear path and timeline to a Tasmanian team by the end of the year.
“I would hope that we could get to the stage where we can roll the contracts over.”
Tasmanian AFL fans don’t want Collingwood, or any other team, to move south.(
ABC News: Danielle Bonica
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AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan said a relocated team that secured strong support in both Victoria and Tasmania should be considered before granting a 19th licence.
This will infuriate many Tasmanian football fans — but it is cause for optimism.
It’s highly likely the conditions for a relocated team will never be met, leaving the AFL to, eventually, grant a 19th licence.
Relocation of a Melbourne-based club would likely need the support of members unwilling to banish their team across Bass Strait for half a season.
A relocated team would never have the same level of support in Tasmania as a homegrown team, and while it would come with a Victorian supporter base, that support is likely to erode over time.
The transplanted South Melbourne team eventually won over Sydney.(
AAP: Joe Castro
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A relocated team would also be less likely to be adopted by the tens of thousands of native Tasmanians living on the mainland who would be inclined to support a team called Tasmania wearing a guernsey with the map.
There has only been one major relocation in VFL/AFL history.
In 1982 South Melbourne made a tumultuous decision to relocate to virgin VFL/AFL territory — Sydney.
There was no impediment, code wars aside, to Sydneysiders supporting the new team.
The reaction in Tasmania to a relocated team in any guise would be mixed at best and hostile at worst.
Unlike expansion into Sydney and Brisbane, Tasmanian footy fans have rusted on allegiances.
The AFL needs a Tasmanian team if the code is to flourish into the future.(
AAP: Jason O’Brien
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It is ridiculous to think a relocated team from Melbourne, be it North Melbourne, Hawthorn or St Kilda, would call on Richmond, Collingwood, Carlton and Essendon supporters in Tasmania to get behind it.
The only way a large percentage of Tasmanians will get behind an AFL team is if it is uniquely Tasmanian.
Once it becomes clear relocation is either undesirable, unworkable and/or doomed to failure, a 19th AFL licence will become the AFL’s only solution.
Then the politics of getting the existing AFL clubs to support a 19th licence can begin.
The Carter report has already laid the groundwork for the campaign.
“The case for Tasmania is strong … and there should be a team representing Tasmania in the AFL/AFLW national competitions,” it says.
Without a mainland club relocating, the AFL will become locked in to supporting a standalone Tasmanian team.(
Flickr: NYCviaRachel
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Carter also dispels common myths advocated for rejecting a Tasmanian team.
