First it was the RACT that withdrew its $250,000 a year sponsorship of games at Bellerive and this week the Hobart City Council voted down a move to debate its $250,000 a year support for the games in 2015-16.

The council's wavering support followed exaggerated headlines in the Southern media claiming, "Roos deal worth $4.3 million".

It took a closer look at the report to find that the data collected by Tourism Tasmania contained the disclaimer: "The survey numbers were low and not enough to represent a true sample of the attendees."

This led to the former lord mayor, John Freeman, to state that the economic impact report was "`useless and hopeless".

The only remaining financial backer is the TT-Line, which is effectively the state government.

The previous Labor government stitched together a deal that saw the TT-Line board enthusiastically contribute $1.5 million in marketing money to the games over three years, a commitment that is apparently now being reviewed by the TT-Line and the AFL.

All this must be leaving the AFL scratching its head because a draft roster for next year would have already been completed.

The AFL is desperate to offload North Melbourne from Victoria after it refused to go to Queensland and botched forays into Darwin and Canberra.

It appears that even Hobart is far from convinced about North even though the club has only embraced the capital.

On the flip side we have the hugely success Hawthorn model at Aurora Stadium - a team that proudly wears the Tasmania logo on its guernsey.

Hobart football fans deserve their taste of AFL action but surely it is counter-productive for this state to be bullied into taking North Melbourne when we have the lucrative and hugely successful Hawthorn model that works for both the club and this state.