How ironic that just as national sporting organisations based in Victoria and NSW appear to be contemplating some degree of Tasmanian inclusion, that state usurps both from the final of the only national sporting competition it is allowed to take part in.
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On Friday, Tasmania will attempt to win its sixth national cricket title in 13 years.
Its wait for a national football or soccer title may have to go on for a bit longer.
While the A-League has openly expressed a desire to expand by a couple of teams – with Tasmania the geographical, if not financial, obvious choice – the AFL has been a little more reserved.
But its two most reliable voicepieces have both had plenty to say on the subject this week.
First was chief executive Gillon McLachlan whose interest in Tasmania’s plight dates back literally days.
Alerted to the island state’s grievances by newly-appointed AFL Tasmania executive officer Trisha Squires, McLachlan wasted no time in delaying a visit south.
To fill the awkward silence between pledging to help solve Tasmanian football’s problems and coming to Tasmania to be seen attempting to solve Tasmanian football’s problems, McLachlan decided to visit the state, at least in topic if not in person.
Speaking at the AFL's season launch in Melbourne, McLachlan pledged not to “forget or abandon” (presumably in that order) a founding state reeling from the loss of a senior North-West team and a dearth of national draftees.
“Football is about a sense of belonging and connection and we will work with all of Tasmania and its fans to ensure that happens,” he said.
So lock in a Tasmanian AFL team for 2019 then.
A report of the launch on the AFL website continued: “McLachlan confirmed last week he will visit Tasmania to speak about the issues facing the clubs, competitions and development programs, but also said he didn't foresee Tasmania having its own stand-alone team in the AFL.”
Cancel the Tasmanian AFL team for 2019.
The report continued: “He also reiterated the AFL's view is that Tasmania would be better served if one of Hawthorn or North Melbourne, who both play home games in the state, was a single tenant.”
Ah, that old chestnut.
When McLachlan says “one of Hawthorn or North Melbourne” what he means is “North Melbourne”.
With Hawthorn back on a secure financial footing courtesy of 17 years of Tasmanian taxpayer investment, the AFL has been desperate to get its next cash-strapped member connected up to the state’s life support machine.
“Our growth agenda is clear. Kids, women and families, New South Wales and Queensland,” McLachlan said, clearly not feeling the need to add: “And not Tasmania.”
But of all McLachlan’s galling, patronising, dismissive comments about our state, the best would have to be: “In Tasmania, there is a divide and there are some issues which need to be addressed.”
This is not the first time the AFL has attempted to play this wildcard.
A year ago, when chairman Mike Fitzpatrick retired, he was asked about the competition’s problem state and said the biggest roadblock to a Tasmanian-based team was Tassie itself.
“In many ways the difficulty is [the] north-south issue in Tasmania and that has to be resolved before Tasmania can be resolved,” Fitzpatrick said.
But here’s the thing. The only divide is the one the AFL conveniently conjures up to avoid confronting its responsibility. If anything, Tasmania is currently more united than ever.
Ever since Burnie announced it was joining Devonport in jumping overboard from the State League, there has been something of a united chorus from all three Tasmanian papers.
The three regions appear to have been bonded by a joint distrust of the AFL’s attitude to Tasmania.
So Gillon has inadvertently, but quite astutely, solved the problem himself.
Everyone’s happy, reinstate a Tassie team for 2019.
Fortunately, whenever McLachlan speaks, there is a translator on hand to explain what he really means.
Which brings us to the other, slightly more reliable, voicepiece for the not-quite-national football competition, namely blogger extraordinaire Titus O’Reily.
It would be hard to find a better method of proving the phrase many a true word is spoken in jest than O’Reily’s post about how the AFL planned to reinvigorate football in Tasmania.
It began: “The AFL recognises that achieving this won’t be easy, after all, we’re dealing with Tasmanians, and they seem to think they deserve an AFL team just because they’ve loved the game since at least the 1860s. The AFL, however, does recognise we have to pretend to try because it’s distracting from the considerable success of AFLX, which we’ve told people to like.”
O’Reily’s masterplan sought to rebuild the game in Tasmania “by providing significant funding for Australian Rules on the Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney” while also growing the game “in the critical Tasmanian regions of India and China”.
With an underpinning aim to “not so secretly hope North Melbourne are forced to relocate there”, the strategy concluded: “We’re confident these initiatives will reinvigorate the apathy most footy fans have towards Tasmania.”
Fortunately, the Tigers have ensured that the mainland won’t be able to ignore Tasmania during this week’s Sheffield Shield final.
