Tassie footy going off the rails long before latest train smash

Banging on about a Tasmanian contribution to the game which the AFL had successfully ignored for 150 years, the league chief executive was a bit more upbeat about the future Tasmanian football landscape.

"It's probably overdue," he understated of the state securing the league's 19th licence as widespread euphoria engulfed the footy-mad heartland.

Fast forward less than a year and that "cavernous pit of catastrophe" quote is being used to describe the upcoming changes imposed on our state by the AFL and the people who do what they say at AFL Tasmania.

The words come in a joint statement from Launceston and North Launceston football clubs.

In the same week, Bombers president Thane Brady described the many changes imposed on Tasmania to prepare for AFL inclusion as "a train smash".

This is not accurate, because even the most catastrophic train smash eventually grinds to a halt. This one seems to gather speed rather than lose it.

This week alone The Examiner revealed that the state's VFL return was unlikely to happen as scheduled in 2025; Launceston and the Northern Bombers had walked out on the proposed NTFA Premier Division and were trying to set up a breakaway league; the same clubs accused AFL Tasmania of breaching licence agreements by failing to provide an adequate competition; and former North Hobart president Craig Martin had described the whole saga as "a complete mess".

What appears to frustrate most people is that it's not as if the smash couldn't be seen coming a long way off.

There aren't many trains in Tasmania, but these have been on a collision course for ages.

As Martin pointed out, in July 2022 - long before McLachlan's Tasmanian AFL announcement - Lauderdale coach and Geelong premiership player Allen Christensen said of the mooted State League demise: "No one is going to come here if we drop back to regional footy."

A year later, North Launceston's Fletcher Bennett said the TSL's imminent discontinuation could result in him looking interstate to continue football.

"Obviously I want to play footy at the highest level I can, but, naturally, there's a chance that this may force me to have to move."

Even the two Northern club presidents who this week spurned AFL Tasmania's proposals have not been hiding their feelings.

Contacted by The Examiner on the day the Tasmanian AFL team was announced, Launceston's Scott Stephens said "footy is on its knees" in the state while his Bombers counterpart Brady stressed the importance of learning from Tasmania's departure from the VFL in 2008. "The biggest risk is falling into the trap of repeating the same mistakes that caused the last VFL team to fail," he said. "We can't be Hobart-centric and the AFL doesn't know best."

Since then, the VFL return has been delayed at least a year, the proposed replacements for the State League appear very Hobart-centric and the AFL is insisting it knows best.

Straying into Agatha Christie territory, Brady this week described the VFL proposal as "a smokescreen - a diversion to allow the silent murder of the TSL".

The joint club statement also likened the proposed NTFA Premier Division to: "A marriage of convenience and not one with any justification. A marriage without love, communication and sustained commitment will not last."

Conveniently obscured by this silent murder and loveless marriage comes a problem child in need of a home.

As things stand, next season there will be no State League or VFL in Tasmania, the Blues and Bombers have walked out on the optimistically-named NTFA Premier Division while the North-West clubs appear decidedly lukewarm about their proposed NTFL-style rebel competition ("It's not going to fly," was NWFL president Garry Carpenter's reaction last week).

All of which begs the question of exactly where Tasmania's most successful clubs of the last decade (during which they have won eight TSL premierships between them) are going to play in 2025.

The clubs said a leap of faith was required to clear their cavernous pit of catastrophe - but it must be from a stable platform with a clear pathway on the other side.

"A rushed and ill-timed leap will not traverse the perilous pit and it will be difficult to find rescue," they added.

Such an outcome appears rather unlikely given any rescue would have to come from the same people who have just sat back and watched a train smash.