- Banned
- #151
Yeah, I find it hard to believe they would choose not to support a Tassie team because of it.
Oppo Camp Non Geelong football (AFL) discussion 2019
- Thread starter Landgraft
- Start date
- Tagged users None
- Status
Max Milburn
Norm Smith Medallist
It's all about the bottom dollar, which would come as a surprise to nobody.
But Tasmanian bids have proven time and again that the money, support and passion is there.
It falls on deaf ears of course.
The north/south divide is overstated, and is a favourite tool of Gil's to pour cold water on Tasmania getting any traction.
As long as Gil is in charge, there will be no Tasmanian team. He has stated this himself.
Of course, he will not wear the damage that this is doing, and will ultimately keep doing to the state of the game here.
It only takes a generation...soccer is already MUCH bigger in schools here than footy.
- Dec 11, 2009
- 29,677
- 36,837
- AFL Club
- Geelong
Ask them whether the games should be played in Hobart or Launceston, then pull up a chair and some popcorn.....
Vdubs
Hall of Famer
Why not 50/50?
- Dec 11, 2009
- 29,677
- 36,837
- AFL Club
- Geelong
Because they'll argue over where the centre of Tas is......
- Dec 11, 2009
- 29,677
- 36,837
- AFL Club
- Geelong
Vdubs
Hall of Famer
50/50
Max Milburn
Norm Smith Medallist
it will be played in Hobart AND Launceston.
As has been outlined in the latest futile pitch to the AFL overlords.
But keep overstating it by all means. Gil would be proud.
cats_09
Otters United
- Jun 21, 2011
- 56,470
- 113,935
- AFL Club
- Geelong
- Moderator
- #159
Next question - will it be Boags or Cascade that will be a sponsor because that will also cause issues.
I can't remember finding Boags on tap when I've been in Hobart and on my last trip to Launceston I did a tour of the Boags factory & they even said that it's easier to find mainland beer than Casade when in Launceston.
It's definitely a divided state
Vdubs
Hall of Famer
If you look hard enough you can find division.
Have worked and holidayed there many times and was not hit by this division.
- Dec 11, 2009
- 29,677
- 36,837
- AFL Club
- Geelong
Not overstating it by any means Max. I lived there for many years, so have plenty of first hand experience.
Max Milburn
Norm Smith Medallist
It's completely overstated when it comes to football.
There are two AFL standard grounds in Tasmania, and each will used equally if a team is granted.
The "division" noise has been resurrected again recently by a certain Mr Kennett, who strangely enough doesn't want to hand over his horrendous club's revenue stream to a Tasmanian team.
I can assure you that this north/south BS is only brought up to suit agendas, and the younger generation here in Tasmania simply scoff at it.
I was at a wedding Saturday night at the Bellerive Yacht Club. Boags and Cascade on tap, right next to each other.
NEWS FLASH: it is not 1978 any more.
MONA FOMA was held in Launceston this year instead of Hobart, and will be again next year.
Zero complaints from Hobartians, who are happy to share it, and even (gasp!) travelled to Launceston to take part.
Of course, seeing as Gold Coast has such a strong heritage in our game, let's deny Tasmania because there is a north/south division.
That makes perfect sense.
Max Milburn
Norm Smith Medallist
There are a lot of words here, but if you are interested have a read of the following. It is an excerpt from Martin Flanagan's speech to the famous North Hobart Football Club, the club his dad played for, and the club my daughter now plays for.
Just one of the proud clubs that should be strong and viable but, because of AFL bastardry, has had to fight for its history, indentity and existence...
If I were to licence a psychiatrist to examine the AFL, the first question I would get that psychiatrist to ask the AFL’s leading executives is this: do you think you’re a corporation? Because you’re not. You didn’t create the asset. You say Tasmania can’t afford an AFL team but you invest $21 million a year into Greater Western Sydney. The truth is you choose to invest in GWS in a way that you’re not prepared to invest in Tasmania. The AFL clearly thinks it’s pretty good at what it does. In 2016, when the Australian Prime Minister was paid $516,000, the AFL had 12 executives making, on average, $734,500. No doubt, if challenged, the AFL would give you the old corporate line that to get the best people you’ve got to pay top dollar. I say the best people in footy are the ones out there doing it every weekend for nothing. They’re the true believers, the ones who carry the spirit of the game and make it available to the next generation. In 2016, each of the Tasmanian Statewide league clubs received less than one seventh of the average salary of the AFL’s top executives. But whose opinions on the current crisis in Tasmanian football do I take most seriously? People like Thane Brady, president of North Launceston, John McCann, president of Glenorchy, Craig Martin, president of North Hobart. These are the people who must now be heard, not just in Tasmania, but nationally. Tasmania is Australian football’s canary in the mine.
One of the AFL’s chief delusions over the past 25 years is that it is the Australian equivalent of the American NFL. Each year a train of AFL personnel have, at profligate expense to the game, travelled to America and attended the Superbowl. Australian football is not to be likened to American football for three important reasons. The first is that America is a mass exporter of culture – we are an importer of culture. This means our game was always vulnerable in a way theirs never was. The second reason is that the NFL is embedded in the American education system – in their high schools. It also rests on the platform of college football. Our game used to be embedded in the education system but is not any more. We do not have the platform of college sport. Our game has only two levels – the AFL and grass roots. If Australian football dies at the grassroots, so will the game.
The AFL is not a corporation. Indeed, in the words of one Tasmanian club president, “If they were a corporation, and the product (that is, the game) wasn’t so good, they’d have gone broke by now”. Nor is the AFL an elected government. If it were an elected government, it would have reason to fear the next election. What has happened in Tasmania over the past 30 years amounts to a degree of mismanagement that would make it a scandal were it to occur in politics. Four years ago, at a time when the AFL was congratulating itself on its billion dollar broadcasting deal, the Tasmanian Statewide League did not even have a cash sponsor and the competition’s profile had dropped so low that clubs were finding it difficult to get sponsors for individual players. The AFL has now requested that the Tasmanian clubs not take their complaints to the media but instead take them to the AFL. I say the public has a right to know, for example, that the president of a major Tasmanian club who disagreed with an AFL initiative was told that he risked having his club relegated to a minor league and a so-called “franchise” put in its place. This was a club, incidentally, that had contributed more than 20 players to VFL/AFL clubs.
Prior to the creation of the AFL in 1990 when the game was administered by the VFL, no-one called the game “VFL” – it was called Australian rules. The fact that the game is now commonly called AFL has fed the fatal illusion that the AFL is the game. What is the AFL? It’s a big bureaucracy that imposes top-down solutions on what it perceives as problems, whether or not the problems exist. A lot of people are now being paid a lot of money to interfere with the game. The best news for Australian football at the moment is women’s football. That’s where the energy is, the growth. Sure enough, the AFL wants to interfere with that. I say to women footballers – you know in your hearts the game you want to play, women have known it for 100 years: don’t settle for less now.
Just one of the proud clubs that should be strong and viable but, because of AFL bastardry, has had to fight for its history, indentity and existence...
If I were to licence a psychiatrist to examine the AFL, the first question I would get that psychiatrist to ask the AFL’s leading executives is this: do you think you’re a corporation? Because you’re not. You didn’t create the asset. You say Tasmania can’t afford an AFL team but you invest $21 million a year into Greater Western Sydney. The truth is you choose to invest in GWS in a way that you’re not prepared to invest in Tasmania. The AFL clearly thinks it’s pretty good at what it does. In 2016, when the Australian Prime Minister was paid $516,000, the AFL had 12 executives making, on average, $734,500. No doubt, if challenged, the AFL would give you the old corporate line that to get the best people you’ve got to pay top dollar. I say the best people in footy are the ones out there doing it every weekend for nothing. They’re the true believers, the ones who carry the spirit of the game and make it available to the next generation. In 2016, each of the Tasmanian Statewide league clubs received less than one seventh of the average salary of the AFL’s top executives. But whose opinions on the current crisis in Tasmanian football do I take most seriously? People like Thane Brady, president of North Launceston, John McCann, president of Glenorchy, Craig Martin, president of North Hobart. These are the people who must now be heard, not just in Tasmania, but nationally. Tasmania is Australian football’s canary in the mine.
One of the AFL’s chief delusions over the past 25 years is that it is the Australian equivalent of the American NFL. Each year a train of AFL personnel have, at profligate expense to the game, travelled to America and attended the Superbowl. Australian football is not to be likened to American football for three important reasons. The first is that America is a mass exporter of culture – we are an importer of culture. This means our game was always vulnerable in a way theirs never was. The second reason is that the NFL is embedded in the American education system – in their high schools. It also rests on the platform of college football. Our game used to be embedded in the education system but is not any more. We do not have the platform of college sport. Our game has only two levels – the AFL and grass roots. If Australian football dies at the grassroots, so will the game.
The AFL is not a corporation. Indeed, in the words of one Tasmanian club president, “If they were a corporation, and the product (that is, the game) wasn’t so good, they’d have gone broke by now”. Nor is the AFL an elected government. If it were an elected government, it would have reason to fear the next election. What has happened in Tasmania over the past 30 years amounts to a degree of mismanagement that would make it a scandal were it to occur in politics. Four years ago, at a time when the AFL was congratulating itself on its billion dollar broadcasting deal, the Tasmanian Statewide League did not even have a cash sponsor and the competition’s profile had dropped so low that clubs were finding it difficult to get sponsors for individual players. The AFL has now requested that the Tasmanian clubs not take their complaints to the media but instead take them to the AFL. I say the public has a right to know, for example, that the president of a major Tasmanian club who disagreed with an AFL initiative was told that he risked having his club relegated to a minor league and a so-called “franchise” put in its place. This was a club, incidentally, that had contributed more than 20 players to VFL/AFL clubs.
Prior to the creation of the AFL in 1990 when the game was administered by the VFL, no-one called the game “VFL” – it was called Australian rules. The fact that the game is now commonly called AFL has fed the fatal illusion that the AFL is the game. What is the AFL? It’s a big bureaucracy that imposes top-down solutions on what it perceives as problems, whether or not the problems exist. A lot of people are now being paid a lot of money to interfere with the game. The best news for Australian football at the moment is women’s football. That’s where the energy is, the growth. Sure enough, the AFL wants to interfere with that. I say to women footballers – you know in your hearts the game you want to play, women have known it for 100 years: don’t settle for less now.
The rabbi
Brownlow Medallist
- May 13, 2007
- 12,857
- 15,792
- AFL Club
- Geelong
- Other Teams
- St.Albans (Geelong Football League)
- Sep 26, 2017
- 26,631
- 43,837
- AFL Club
- Geelong
Crouch again...bit of tough luck there
I agree with you that the AFL was always pursuing a long-term strategy. Problem for them now is that the trajectory is tracking all the wrong way. The club has actually got more shambolic across its short history (which is really saying something), to the point where they are now massively 'damaged goods' from a media perspective as well. How does any young person (or casual observer) want to get more invested or interested in a team as poor as this one? Their level of irrelevance is truly frightening. Until/unless that turns around, I don't see that it matters how many years you exist. People are still going to view you as entirely risible.
It's pretty telling that the Lions won three consecutive premierships up here and yet the crowds died off catastrophically once the success was no longer forthcoming. Tells you something about how much Queensland is ever likely to really 'love' our national game. And the Lions, like the Swans have at different stages, at least had the benefit of a high-profile luminary of the game as coach at some point. Even GWS had Sheeds as a foundational figure that had massive profile and gravitas in the game. By contrast, McKenna to Eade to Dew is a recipe for 'Who is that bloke?', when it comes to having your coach act as a drawcard in a challenging marketplace.
I also totally agree with you about why they won't put a team down south. After all, unlike the massive growth area that is SEQ, there is a definite ceiling on how lucrative it could be for the bean-counters at AFL House. All of which doesn't change the fact that it is a heartland that is massively undervalued (and basically ignored). So, despite the fact a Tassie team would be very likely to have some guaranteed solid outcomes well in excess of the money pit they have running up here right now, the AFL is still clinging to the hope that their inane projections of a mass conversion of us Queenslanders would see rivers of gold flow into their swelling coffers. It's more unlikely than Blitz winning the Coleman, of course, but they're prepared to sacrifice stacks of integrity and goodwill with their core constituency in their unprincipled pursuit of the dollar.
And for all the AFL execs on their bloated salaries and with their inflated sense of self-importance, they wouldn't have it any other way.
Last edited:
Is it all possible that they could build a Docklands type stadium down there.. id have thought you best chance is ..to build it and then they might come
Max Milburn
Norm Smith Medallist
I was involved in a plan in the 80s to build a new stadium at the current Royal Hobart Showgrounds. This was just one of the early pitches for a Tasmanian team (long before anyone conceived of Gold Coast or GWS). The pitch was well-supported, with Michael Kent who was head of Woolworths at that stage taking up the mantle. (I interviewed both Kevin Sheedy and Max Walker as part of the video pitch!)
Anyway, long story short, that opportunity is no longer viable.
Heaps of money has been spent on both Bellerive and Launceston in the meantime, and they are both fantastic venues to watch football.
As long as the current regime is in charge, no amount of logical argument will sway them.
That is the real (and only) obstacle.
David the Cat
Moderator
- Moderator
- #170
Uhmmm no....
A loooong time ago, I did a schoolboys tour to Tassie for a 3 game series...first game in Launcestion, the fog was so thick I couldn't see the bounce from CHB....
This might work though.....
Max Milburn
Norm Smith Medallist
Ha ha. Launceston is a fog trap.Uhmmm no....
A loooong time ago, I did a schoolboys tour to Tassie for a 3 game series...first game in Launcestion, the fog was so thick I couldn't see the bounce from CHB....
This might work though.....
- Nov 7, 2010
- 26,873
- 35,552
- AFL Club
- Geelong
- Other Teams
- WADA
LOL I once played a game of cricket on a ground out of Horsham on the Western Freeway where you couldn't see the batsmen while fielding on the mid wicket boundary one side of the ground as it fell away so steeply.Uhmmm no....
A loooong time ago, I did a schoolboys tour to Tassie for a 3 game series...first game in Launcestion, the fog was so thick I couldn't see the bounce from CHB....
This might work though.....
Last edited:
Surprised to see Selwood isn't number 1 in this thread
https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/thre...most-hated-current-player-in-the-afl.1204258/
https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/thre...most-hated-current-player-in-the-afl.1204258/
- Status
Similar threads
- Locked
