Short memories and vested interests were never far from view this week as Australia's national football competition stepped up its 124-year-long crusade not to be national.

Hawthorn and Gold Coast were the undisputed grand finalists in the Anti-Tasmania League.

When Hawks president Jeff Kennett says Tasmania can't afford a team, it is worth remembering that the state has been paying for his for the last 20 years.

And St Kilda. And North Melbourne.

Kennett also warned that there are several financially-fragile clubs already struggling in the comp, failing to mention that his club was one of them until Tasmanian taxpayers reversed their bank balance.

Meanwhile, Suns chairman Tony Cochrane voiced his concern about the potential financial burden of a Tasmanian team on the AFL.

Hopefully, it wouldn't stretch to the $27.5 million required annually to keep his team afloat - which was previously mentioned at the top of this story but is so staggering it is worth repeating.

In sermons of stunning self-interest, Kennett and Cochrane both stated further AFL expansion would not happen in their lifetimes.

Ironically, the former turns 73 today - happy birthday Jeff! Although, given earlier criticism, it is doubtful he is still reading.

As the average life expectancy for an Australian male is 83, this means Tasmania will not get its own AFL team for at least a decade.

This is also the most definitive AFL timeline the state has ever received, although maybe not quite what Premier Peter Gutwein has been seeking.

Cochrane underlined this timeframe when he said it would be "completely unrealistic" to introduce a new team within the next decade, given how much some of the existing clubs are struggling. Like his own, for instance, which requires $27.5 million a year to keep going. Apparently.

Kennett said 12 of the league's existing 18 clubs rely on financial assistance from the AFL, and with a $40 million minimum annual requirement, didn't want to see Tasmania becoming a 13^th.

"How do you get a 19th? You don't," he said on Melbourne radio.

"Well how do you get a Tasmanian team, you've got to somehow rearrange the 18 so that one becomes the Tasmanian team.

"The last thing I want to do is see a Tasmanian team that fails. It's easy to ask for it, but it's a very hard thing to deliver, particularly in this economic environment."

And particularly if the state's taxpayers are already paying to support two other AFL teams.

Myopia is nothing new with this political football.

The AFL has repeatedly stated that the biggest impediment to Tasmania getting its own team is the state's own parochialism.

Voiced by Mike Fitzpatrick, echoed by Andrew Demetriou and accepted by Gillon McLachlan, it is an argument as lazy as it is inaccurate.

Even a cursory glance at Tasmania's competing newspapers, television and radio stations last month will reveal that, far from being divided by parochialism, the state has been united by its dismissive treatment from AFL hierarchy.

Meanwhile, in a radical shake-up to Tasmania's traditional approach of happily accepting whatever the AFL orders, Gutwein has decided to play hardball.

Freezing renegotiations with the Hawks and Kangaroos until a timeline was provided, the Premier was threatening to cut the $8 million revenue stream the clubs have grown rather accustomed to.

To say the AFL's response to this ultimatum was swift and understanding would be rather stretching the truth.

With a deadline set for close-of-business on Friday, February 19, the AFL responded with a "Tasmania update media release" sent at 6.17pm that day.

It was a beautiful work of creative English which succinctly dismissed the Tasmanian AFL taskforce's 267-page report, blamed COVID-19 for its tardiness, stressed how it remained "committed to providing elite content for football supporters (in Tassie)", and then asked for another year or two before giving an answer, maybe.

When McLachlan said: "The AFL Commission understands the importance of Tasmania to our code", he clearly meant: "The AFL Commission understands the importance of Tasmanian funding to our code."

Gutwein launched a blistering counter-attack suggesting they "haven't bothered to look at it", continued to "treat Tasmania with disrespect" and were demonstrating "recalcitrance".

He wasn't done there, adding: "It beggars belief that the AFL want to kick the can down the road again for another 12 months."

Matters came to a head when the pair had an hour-long phone conversation on Friday with further developments expected to be announced this week.

The AFL media release also stressed how the organisation was committed to "promoting participation in our football across Tasmania". The same week, East Devonport, which was founded 120 years ago, placed its senior program into recess.

So as Tasmania prepares to join the National Basketball League and continues to seek admittance into similar competitions in soccer and netball, the footy equivalent would rather channel $27.5 million towards the undisputed graveyard of Australian sporting franchises, the Gold Coast.

Their loss.