Former St Kilda champion Nick Riewoldt was voted in as Tasmania's greatest player of the AFL era, but the mantle was not without controversy.
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The AFL Tasmania poll had Riewoldt the overwhelming winner over Richmond icon Matthew Richardson.
The often polarising Saints figure took out the popular vote in the grand final with 66 per cent from nearly 2000 followers who cast their vote.
The online contest pitted 32 of the state's stars since 1990 do battle in a head-to-head elimination format.
Despite beating Launceston's Tom Bellchambers in the round of 32, Sandy Bay's Darrin Pritchard next, Clarence cousin Jack Riewoldt in the quarters and Wynyard's Alastair Lynch in the semis before duelling against Richardson, the 336-gamer only spent half of his childhood in Hobart before the family relocated to the Gold Coast.
Riewoldt ended up playing all representative football for Queensland from junior club Broadbeach and a senior stint for Southport.
Critics of Riewoldt's right to be in contention remarked on AFL Tasmania's Facebook page, "imagine if Tassie's greatest footy player moved away when he was nine and didn't play here" as well as he "didn't even play hardly any footy here in Tas ... shouldn't even be in the poll".
AFL Tasmania declined to spell out the players' criteria for eligibility, other than a spokesperson adding that "it is a bit of fun online".
The retired star forward has always claimed to be a Tasmanian and also sat on the Tasmanian AFL advisory board last year despite never playing for a club in the state.
His father, Joe Riewoldt, was the eldest of four brothers to play for Clarence, but it was Nick's uncle Chris Riewoldt - and Jack's dad - that was a star for the Roos after once signing to a form four contract to play with St Kilda.
The eldest of the Riewoldt pair comprehensively won 70 per cent of the vote in the first of two contests between the St Kilda and Richmond spearheads of their time.
Richardson averaging 2.82 goals per game compared to 2.13 goals and winning his club's goalkicking award 13 times to four got the edge on his grand final opponent.
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But Riewoldt had the Devonport recruit covered over five All-Australian selections compared to three, six club best and fairest awards to none and 10 seasons of captaincy to also none.
The standout honours in the win were the 2004 Leigh Matthews MVP award and winning the AFL Rising Star award two years earlier.
Fans in the poll definitely focused on individual honours over team accolades.
Both Riewoldt and Richardson, who breezed past another Devonport product Grant Birchall, never tasted grand final success, but they got the nod ahead over their big-time semi-finallists, who combined to capture a total of seven AFL premierships at Brisbane and Hawthorn.
Tasmania's best player of the previous 30 AFL seasons had his closest head-to-head match-up after sneaking past Lynch with 52 per cent of the 6200 followers in also the tournament's closest battle.
The next poll that AFL Tasmania is hosting is for the favourite ground in the state.
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Andrew Mathieson
The day I realised I wasn't good enough to play for St Kilda or be the No.1 spinner for Australia was when I realised journalism was the closest I could come to follow my passion for sport. And it's not just about the scores for me. It's the back story behind the game.
The day I realised I wasn't good enough to play for St Kilda or be the No.1 spinner for Australia was when I realised journalism was the closest I could come to follow my passion for sport. And it's not just about the scores for me. It's the back story behind the game.
