Peter Hudson (left), Ian Stewart (centre) and Darrel Baldock: three official AFL Legends of the Game, all from Tasmania.
I listen to a lot of footy talkback and footy podcasts, and every few weeks or so the topic of the state of the game in Tasmania comes up, more specifically the idea of a Tasmanian AFL team and the various pros and cons.
In recent months there seems to be a very pro-Tasmanian argument from pretty much all corners of the footy media landscape. There is, however, a sector of the footballing community that argues against a side in the Apple Isle, their interests in keeping Tasmania out of the AFL varying widely.
The main argument I hear from various sources is there isn’t a big enough population in Tasmania to sustain a team.
Tasmania’s population is 515,000. The Victorian population is 6.3 million. If we divide the Victorian population by 10 (the number of Victorian teams) it works out to be about 630,000 per team. Not a huge gap by any stretch of the imagination.
Given that the most members a club had last year was Richmond with 100,726, the population argument is a soft one at best.
With seven clubs having under 50,000 members, and three other clubs under 60,000, that’s 55 per cent of clubs having 60,000 or less members.
To hit those numbers, only one in 10 Tasmanians would need to buy a membership for the new team. Also, that isn’t factoring in Tasmanians who have moved to the mainland that would be interested in supporting a club from their original state.
Another argument trotted out is that there would not be sponsorship money for a prospective side in the island state. To me, this just seems like a ridiculous argument.
Of course businesses would be interested in putting their logo where the rest of Australia can see it. Plus, there is the goodwill factor of being an inaugural sponsor of a team which would be everybody’s second team (until it started winning).
If you need something more tangible then my opinion, go through the list of sponsors for the Gold Coast Suns. The Suns have not been traveling well (outside the month of course) yet still have partnerships with Hostplus, McDonalds, Metricon, Virgin, Huawei, Carlton Draft, XBlades and Gatorade.
Not a bad list considering the Suns have only 12,000 members and the Gold Coast has a population of 591,356.
But the main reason why the AFL should find a way to bring a Tasmanian side into the competition is simply because it’s the right thing to do.
The first games of footy recorded in Tassie were in 1886, well and truly classifying Tasmania as a foundation football state.
The amount and calibre of players the state has provided for the then VFL and now AFL is well known by all football supporters.
The last time there was a push to include a Tasmanian team, at least 20,000 people said they would sign up as members of a new side. A team in the national competition could go a long way to repairing the fractured and declining state of the local Statewide league.
It makes sense economically, culturally and morally. Tasmania as part of the AFL is just right. Let’s hope that the league has the best interests of all fans at heart next time it contemplated expanding the competition.
