Those were the days when we had separate South, North and NWFU competitions, which played each other once a year, and then each premiership side played off for the title of state premiers.

Families these days don’t want to and often can’t afford to travel all over the state to play.

Scottsdale was once the top side in the state, with players like Jim Leitch an all-Australian player.

I am sure it was the start of the statewide competition that was their demise.

When the North was either playing the South or the Union, Scottsdale would play a combined North-East Union side at Winnaleah to very large crowds, and this was their feeder ground for the club.

Now the North-East Union is literally non-existent.

In those days Tasmania continually produced players for the then-VFL clubs just as good as any playing in the AFL today.

Tasmania is nowhere near in a position to put a side in the AFL. To be central it would have to be in Launceston, and I can’t imagine that happening.

How big a crowd would the games draw if we were to be continually near the bottom of the ladder?

I wonder if those trying to administer our football today have any knowledge of our glory days.

Our early set up was literally a statewide competition anyway, with much better results than the one we have today.

J.D. Orchard, Scottsdale.

IF THE government goes ahead with its firearms legislation it is inevitable that some of the weapons will be stolen, putting civilians and police at extra risk. 

It is inevitable too that at some  stage a self-loading weapon or pump action shotgun will be used in a domestic dispute.

And as we know from Australian and US experience even legally bought guns can be turned on others when someone loses control of their life.

Australia's gun laws are designed to minimise the impact a deranged shooter can have and that is why self-loading and pump action guns have no place in civilian hands.

The arguments for the proposed changes are at best spurious and should be ignored.

If Premier Hodgman won't stop this nonsense and protect John Howard's legacy, it is up to the Legislative Council and Prime Minister Turnbull to do it.

Rod Scott, Trevallyn.

CARMEN Frelek (Letters, The Examiner, March 8) shows an embarrassing ignorance of the world to think that demonstrating against the government is as safe and straightforward in the countries asylum seekers come from as it is in Australia. 

People are routinely jailed or shot for doing so in these places. 

Of course it should be a “top priority of any government to ensure its own people’s needs are met first”  but it is clear that this isn’t the case everywhere in the world. 

I would suggest that such a thing is a long way from being the top priority for the Syrian government. 

And while Syrians who oppose the government do of course outnumber the government itself on a purely numerical basis, do they have access to the fighter jets they would require for a ‘level playing field’? 

Of course not. 

I suggest that Carmen Frelek approach someone on the street in Ghouta, Syria, while they are busy dragging their family from the bombed out rubble and ask them why they don’t have the will or work ethic to overthrow their government. 

James Ireland, Newstead.

GOOD TO to see MLC Ivan Dean give his opinion on the Legislative Council as it is now (The Examiner, March 13). 

It is supposed to be an  independent house of review but these days it is anything but what it is meant to be. 

As people have stated many times over the years, both Queensland and New Zealand dumped their upper houses decades ago and from then on have become the most prosperous areas in the region.

Lyle Cook, Shearwater.

KATHLEEN McClaren (The Examiner, March 10) worries over nothing. 

We have elected a Liberal government for Tasmania.  

Collectively, we the electorate, are however prone to gambling and once allowed Labor and the Greens to form a self-serving coalition. 

That was a dangerous bet and we almost lost our "shirt".

When gambling teaches us a lesson that really hurts, and that episode almost cost us the very existence of our statehood, we are wise enough to realise our mistakes and clever enough not to follow Greenhorn - pardon the pun - arrogant pie-in-the-sky minorities to the debtors’ prison.

We are for now, in safe hands.

Len Langan, Longford.

AN EXCELLENT letter from Julia Weston of St Marys (The Examiner, February 18).  

Rightfully she condemns the unnecessary packaging we find in supermarkets.  

Wrapping vegetables and fruit in plastic does nothing to prolong freshness, probably the reverse and so hastening decay.  

It is all so unnecessary and wasteful and as the writer says, just leads to more waste along road edges and in our waterways.

Of course we can avoid this packaging and those who insist on inflicting it upon us. Farmers’ markets and green grocer shops do not use unnecessary packaging.  

In Launceston we are well served with a Saturday market and nearby Young’s Vegie Shed.  Maybe if we boycott their overly packaged goods, the supermarkets may get the message.

Dick James, Launceston.