Yesterday's announcement that the Hawks will play Fremantle, Greater Western Sydney, Brisbane and the Western Bulldogs at Aurora Stadium was welcomed by the club as ``a good spread of games'' but even its supporters' group expressed disappointment. 

``They are typical of the games we are going to get. There's none of the main players,'' said Tassie Hawks supporters group spokesman Malcolm Hales.

``Fremantle is the only visiting team that played in the finals but knowing the way the AFL have been dealing with Hawthorn down here, this is it.''

The strongest condemnation came from economist Saul Eslake, who was involved in the failed bid to secure a Tasmanian AFL side and has been a critic of the league and its chief executive Andrew Demetriou since.

``It yet again shows the AFL's contempt for the football-loving public of Tasmania that the state's role is to pay money so that the AFL can stage games that would lose money if they were played on the mainland,'' Mr Eslake said.

Mr Eslake was particularly outspoken about the visit of Greater Western Sydney.

``If Hawthorn versus Boganville was staged at Bankstown they would be lucky if 7000 turned up and half of those would be on freebies, but at York Park maybe 20,000 will turn up and Tasmania pays for that privilege,'' he said.

``I'll only know they (the AFL) take Tasmania seriously when you get a Collingwood or an Essendon down there but they know they will get more money playing in Melbourne because 20,000 people would turn out to watch Collingwood play the Alice Springs Ants and they will never play in Tasmania while Demetriou is in charge.''

The roster will feature Brisbane's fifth visit to Launceston in the past six years and Fremantle's ninth since 2001.

North Melbourne's two games at Hobart's Bellerive Oval will be against reigning premier Sydney and Port Adelaide in rounds three and six, meaning Tasmania will host four games in six weeks in April and May.

Launceston Mayor Albert van Zetten said the roster spread out Tasmanian games across the season, enabling continued benefits to the region.

``The benefits of AFL football to our region are manyfold and I hope we will see many new visitors to Launceston as a result of the 2013 fixture,'' Alderman van Zetten said.

Hawthorn's Tasmanian operations manager Shayne Stevenson said he was pleased to see the Aurora Stadium fixtures spread out over four months.

``It's a good rotation of clubs. We've had North Melbourne for the last few seasons so it's good to see a new-look to the fixtures with GWS coming down,'' he said.

``The Western Bulldogs have not been here since 2008 when they packed the place out so it's terrific to have them down again. Fremantle are an emerging club and played well in the finals last year while we always have a good contest with the Lions.

``There's a good variety overall and I think we're ready for a very good season.''

Club chief executive Stuart Fox said: ``The club has achieved a good spread of games across the fixture in the island state.''