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While I agree, I think it's always easier to hypothesise about such things when you're not a North/StKilda/Melbourne/Dogs fan.

The VFL offered for Fitzroy to move to Brisbane in the mid-1980s, and Fitzroy turned it down. Then Footscray backed out of the 1989 merger, Melbourne backed out of the 1994 merger, despite both having VFL/AFL support. The VFL did not block relocations or mergers for Fitzroy AFAIK. The major...

The difficulty being, as we saw in 1981 and 1996, killing a club is a difficult thing to do and supporters pretty much tie themselves in knots to retain clubs as they are, especially in a wealthy era where all clubs are effectively financially stable and competitive on-field. Fitzroy at its...

Recruiting of mature aged state level talent wasn’t what it is now. Not that the Suns or Giants took advantage of it.

Whoops I forgot about Adelaide. Yeah, there was still decent VFL grade players in the SANFL by 1990.

This is exactly how I feel about it too.

Well, of course - wouldn't want family Christmas dinner to get awkward...

Most club revenue doesn’t come from match day tickets, anyway, AFAIK. A Tassie team will do just fine fiscally.

Anyway, FWIW I believe Tassie should absolutely have a team. I just suspect that player retention could be tough.

Am I counting it wrong in Google search? Says Hobart is 206k as of five years ago, Geelong is 253k.

I only learned it recently too. But that’s how footy trading used to be done - makes the Tippett deal look tame.

Gentlemen’s agreement. As part of the deal to get Kickett, Ridley and Delaney, Fremantle agreed not to take an uncontracted player from any club below Essendon (five clubs in total). This meant that Essendon were guaranteed the first shot at the concession picks - Matthew Lloyd. This was...

The manipulation bit was that Essendon agreed to trade more players to Freo in exchange for Freo not trading with any club that finished below Essendon in 1994.

That might be more true than I considered.

True, but football isn’t your whole life. Mind you, IIRC, when I was 21, Inwas capable of finding my way to the pub in pretty much anything this side of a blizzard

Agreed, but it’s still a factor. Much less of a factor than that island bit.

It’s not how nice Hobart is or isn’t that is the issue, it’s living on a small, cold island far from the big city that is a tough sell to most draftees, who will be young city kids.

It is nice - I really liked Hobart when I was there, albeit 20 years ago - but I think there is a difference between laidback, and isolated. I do think that the laidback lifestyle aspect tends to appeal more to older people, not so much young guys in their early 20s.

No it’s not. You know as well as I do that getting to the airport, clearing security, getting through the airport, getting through the other end and then getting to the city is not just a half-hour concern. Plus then you are limited to flight times.

If Geelong was on an island they sure would. But it’s not - it’s within 90 minutes of Melbourne. Not to mention that Geelong is bigger every city in Tasmania. The other thing I might suggest is that GWS, for example, has had big go-home issues even throughout that 2016-2019 period when they...

The other issue is that this kind of thing has been raised with every expansion team - but with the exception of West Coast, every expansion side struggled to attract established players. Fremantle was given a very similar hand to what you suggest - early draft access picks which it could only...

I still see a big go-home factor looming as an issue - as much as Tassie is a football state, most young men won’t be all that keen on living in the Apple Isle all their youth.

Geelong has it too I believe

As a Brisbane-based Geelong supporter, I do not like the night games at Carrara for one very good reason... people drive that highway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast like they've dropped half a dozen pingas before getting behind the wheel, principally because they HAVE dropped half a dozen...

It's a night grand final. Of course they are going to have a longish halftime music performance.

Was hoping for some Ball Park Music or WAAX given the Brisbanic nature of the event, but oh well.

People bang on about them being a "state side", but it does a serious disservice to the Eagles sides of the time (especially when you compare to Adelaide, who had a similar advantage but never dominated like the Eagles did). The Eagles were miles ahead of other sides in terms of their...

I generally disagree - once you've got the height and the frame, it's up to you as to how much bulk you want to stick on it.

Yeah, but at some point it’s just not part of the state’s identity. In a similar manner, Melbourne Storm has had incredible sustained success for years, and yet their membership is dwarfed by that of even the least-supported Melbourne club.

Would give them a huge shot at landing an extremely good playing list... but not having Champions League every year would be tough.