Unified. This is the message Gill McLachlan was pushing when he flew into Hobart to announce the AFL’s plans to improve and strengthen football in Tasmania.
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The AFL chief executive spoke the words “unity, united, unify, unite and/or unification” no less than 19 times during a 28 minute press conference in Hobart on Tuesday. The words “sustainable”, “pathways” and “all Tasmanians” often helped to complete the sentence.
The message was very clear. Football in Tasmania was fractured.
The development and sustainability of the game was not being met.
Now there appears to be a plan. The announcement was odd viewing. McLachlan looked very flat as he spoke about the need for a passionate, united Tasmania to improve AFL in our state.
Yet, what he said was truth. Before today there was no clear pathway for boys and girls playing football. While not everyone would have the goal to play in the AFL, it’s about aspirations. Sport offers children a chance to dream big. And, due to the fractured state of our junior development and beyond, there was very little to even encourage kids to dream. Dreams are goals, and without plans and pathways, goals are just daydreaming.
But, during the press conference, McLachlan said any kid aged eight to 10 should now have a clear pathway and real possibility of developing talent in order to play at the highest level.
The clear theme from the announcement – it’s up to Tasmanians to make this work.
And McLachlan has a point. We have seen the effects losing a football club has on a community with Winnaleah residents sharing their sadness and loss of connection last week in The Examiner.
Yes, the fractured structure hasn’t helped to support grassroots football. It’s great to see this acknowledged.
But now, in the words of McLachlan – we must be united.
We can do this in a variety of ways.
Firstly, is to remove any leftover thoughts of parochialism. This serves no one.
Secondly, we must be involved. Whether that be playing, volunteering or supporting the game with our feet by sitting in the grandstand.
When we are united we have a stronger voice. This voice had the struggles acknowledged, now it must be used to help improve the game we love.
