Tasmania Tasmanian AFL Team, could it happen?

[telsor]

Given that games will split between Bellerive & York Park Its not overloading either area. A fair number will drive. Given the much lower costs in boutique stadiums, I think a team would do quite ok. We're also talking about a home team. Real footy people will attach to it.

I think people in Melbourne are reasonably attached to their teams, and if you want to include 2-3 hours driving time, that would expand Melbourne's population base as well for such a calculation.

I don't doubt the people of Tasmania are passionate about football, but *twice* as passionate as Melbourne fans?

 

[telsor]

If they were consistently packing out grounds then they'd never get their own team.

catch-22. Not turning up wont encourage the AFL to give them a team either.

 

[madmug]

I think people in Melbourne are reasonably attached to their teams, and if you want to include 2-3 hours driving time, that would expand Melbourne's population base as well for such a calculation.

I don't doubt the people of Tasmania are passionate about football, but *twice* as passionate as Melbourne fans?

 

[madmug]

Im sure people drive from Bendigo & Ballarat to Melbourne as it is.

I see it as axiomatic that some people will drive to wherever the Tasmanian club plays in Tasmania. Thats a game each fortnight on the island.

A longish trip each month wouldnt be an issue for a lot of people. A more local game each month is hardly an overload either
.
Attachment to ones own club changes things.

 

[TTRRAAVVIISS]

Was there a Tas team playing?

Imagine a game between to non Melbourne clubs at Etihad - poor observation Trav !!

Not a poor observation at all.

North is the Hobart team for 3 games like GWS is in Canberra. When ever gws draw 8k fans to a game people say "get rid of them move the team to tassie". Yet 8k turned up to the Hobart kangaroos on the weekend. It's a piss poor turn out to an AFL game in an AFL strong hold. End of story.

6823 Turned up to see a trial match between storm v Bulldogs at north Hobart oval in February.

If there's a tassie team i guarentee you'll get similar crowds to North, especially in seasons when the team is not winning. The AFL have done the sums. If it were viable or there was coin to be made you know the AFL would be all for it

 

[Kwality]

Not a poor observation at all.

North is the Hobart team for 3 games like GWS is in Canberra. When ever gws draw 8k fans to a game people say "get rid of them move the team to tassie". Yet 8k turned up to the Hobart kangaroos on the weekend. It's a piss poor turn out to an AFL game in an AFL strong hold. End of story.

6823 Turned up to see a trial match between storm v Bulldogs at north Hobart oval in February.

If there's a tassie team i guarentee you'll get similar crowds to North, especially in seasons when the team is not winning. The AFL have done the sums. If it were viable or there was coin to be made you know the AFL would be all for it

Exactly a poor post - typical observation of a Melbourne based fan with no idea of the world of Aussie Rules footy outside Melbourne. Have a look at what happened in WA & SA, like Tas, heartland. Locals don't buy into FIFO raiders there for the money, and its par for the course that Victorians battle to understand.

The FIFO strategy of charging $mils for 'a footy nursery' to fund footy in the engine room of the game is not a good look.

 

[The_Wookie]

. Locals don't buy into FIFO raiders there for the money, and its par for the course that Victorians battle to understand.

Except they are. And it seems to be something that you cant get your head around for some reason. The top 4 AFL crowds at Bellerive are from the last two seasons, and the average attendance last season across all Tasmanian games was the highest since 2011.

Exactly a poor post

You know whats equally as poor? Claiming Tasmanians are tired of the FIFO arrangment after 1 game this season, when the three games at the same venue last season averaged more than 15,600 - a figure up from the previous season at Bellerive where games averaged more than 14,000. North Melbourne were playing the worst supported team in the competition, little to no external interest from neutral supporters - and it shows in ALL their away crowds, not just Tasmanian ones.

 

[madmug]

Not a poor observation at all.

North is the Hobart team for 3 games like GWS is in Canberra. When ever gws draw 8k fans to a game people say "get rid of them move the team to tassie". Yet 8k turned up to the Hobart kangaroos on the weekend. It's a piss poor turn out to an AFL game in an AFL strong hold. End of story.

6823 Turned up to see a trial match between storm v Bulldogs at north Hobart oval in February.

If there's a tassie team i guarentee you'll get similar crowds to North, especially in seasons when the team is not winning. The AFL have done the sums. If it were viable or there was coin to be made you know the AFL would be all for it

Im not aware of any team called the Hobart Kangaroos. Given their fight to resist any move from the VFL bubble in Melbourne

Why would anyone here attach thenselves to North? They dont want to be here, except for money.

The AFL would do a lot of sums. Mainly about how to support 10 clubs in one area.

 

[madmug]

Except they are. And it seems to be something that you cant get your head around for some reason. The top 4 AFL crowds at Bellerive are from the last two seasons, and the average attendance last season across all Tasmanian games was the highest since 2011.



You know whats equally as poor? Claiming Tasmanians are tired of the FIFO arrangment after 1 game this season, when the three games at the same venue last season averaged more than 15,600 - a figure up from the previous season at Bellerive where games averaged more than 14,000. North Melbourne were playing the worst supported team in the competition, little to no external interest from neutral supporters - and it shows in ALL their away crowds, not just Tasmanian ones.

The last few years show what an AFL state we are. People love their footy. Its just that FIFO clubs are just that. No real club attachment.
Its just a pathetic situation for the AFL to create

 

[BobbyMorri]

you entice people by having a good match up(good game between 2 even sides) or by personal attachment(etc you support said team)

GWS v NM had neither of those. Hobart attendance will be lower this year as there isnt a Richmond coming down. It will be interesting to see how many hobart North supporters travel to Launny later this year. it will be a real showcase of Norths true support in the market. how much they are cutting though.

Tassie is a mini Victoria in terms of support. sure there are some differences(i reckon the Saints with the Baldock connection would have higher % of support and the Melbourne Demons a lower % down here, for example) but we follow the same lines.

Except they are. And it seems to be something that you cant get your head around for some reason. The top 4 AFL crowds at Bellerive are from the last two seasons, and the average attendance last season across all Tasmanian games was the highest since 2011.

The redevelopment would have helped increase attendances. plus the 2 Richmond games.

 

[madmug]

you entice people by having a good match up(good game between 2 even sides) or by personal attachment(etc you support said team)

GWS v NM had neither of those. Hobart attendance will be lower this year as there isnt a Richmond coming down. It will be interesting to see how many hobart North supporters travel to Launny later this year. it will be a real showcase of Norths true support in the market. how much they are cutting though.

Tassie is a mini Victoria in terms of support. sure there are some differences(i reckon the Saints with the Baldock connection would have higher % of support and the Melbourne Demons a lower % down here, for example) but we follow the same lines.

The redevelopment would have helped increase attendances. plus the 2 Richmond games.

Yes I recon you're pretty right.

A lot of saints supporters & a lot of Richmond from Baldock, Lawrence, Stewart, Roach onto Richo etc Then Hawthorn with Hudson. The big Vic clubs as you'd expect like Collingwood, Carlton & Essendon. Of course WA had the same thing with their stars going to Vic. They managed to start supporting their own clubs in WCE & Freo. I see very much the same thing here if we ever get a look in.

 

[TTRRAAVVIISS]

Exactly a poor post - typical observation of a Melbourne based fan with no idea of the world of Aussie Rules footy outside Melbourne. Have a look at what happened in WA & SA, like Tas, heartland. Locals don't buy into FIFO raiders there for the money, and its par for the course that Victorians battle to understand.

The FIFO strategy of charging $mils for 'a footy nursery' to fund footy in the engine room of the game is not a good look.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-ne...tony-cochrane-bites-back-20170410-gvhsan.html

This article pretty much sums it up perfectly.

Oh and what makes you think I'm Melbourne based? Lived in all eastern seaboard states. Been in nsw for years. Surely the Tassie government has better things to worry about than bank rolling a footy team... how about a new school or funding the grass roots leagues

 

[madmug]

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-ne...tony-cochrane-bites-back-20170410-gvhsan.html

This article pretty much sums it up perfectly.

Oh and what makes you think I'm Melbourne based? Lived in all eastern seaboard states. Been in nsw for years. Surely the Tassie government has better things to worry about than bank rolling a footy team... how about a new school or funding the grass roots leagues

Sums what up? I think the GC chairman could say little else. Neither someone like him, nor a politician are going to say anything negative about their positions, are they?
GC are ok whilst the AFL pump them up. Good luck to the club but they are fighting history. the GC is a grave yard for so many sports club that its hard to remember them all. People go to the GC for the lifestyle. Being footy mad is clearly not one of them.

So the Suns have an awful lot to do to establish themselves & remain viable in whats always been a very transient environment.

 

[nobbyiscool]

Surely the Tassie government has better things to worry about than bank rolling a footy team... how about a new school or funding the grass roots leagues

This is such a lazy chestnut. Do you have any evidence of need for "a new school"? Or do you just want them to build a random one regardless of need because apparently it's worth more than a Hawthorn deal that has been proven more than once to add more to the Launceston economy than the cost of the game? (I'm not aware of any similar research into the impact of North games.)

The money would absolutely be better spent on a Tasmanian team, but the notion that the Government's money is thrown away to an interstate team for no return is false.

 

[madmug]

This is such a lazy chestnut. Do you have any evidence of need for "a new school"? Or do you just want them to build a random one regardless of need because apparently it's worth more than a Hawthorn deal that has been proven more than once to add more to the Launceston economy than the cost of the game? (I'm not aware of any similar research into the impact of North games.)

The money would absolutely be better spent on a Tasmanian team, but the notion that the Government's money is thrown away to an interstate team for no return is false.

Probably correct. Its a hard one to really quantify. Its been said the money spent would have been spent anyway, just somewhere else.
The benefit of our own team would be more than financial. Its also about social unity, community pride. All far better for us than the FIFO con job from the AFL.
For me it would also be to the huge benefit of AR in Tasmania. Access to modern coaching methods & players to coach. Stimulate the interest to play football in more kids.

 

[The_Wookie]

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-05-18/call-for-youth-state-team-as-tassie-football-celebrates

But Bolton, who is in his second year at the Blues, met with AFL Tasmania chief executive Rob Auld in the past fortnight to discuss the revival of the Tassie Mariners under-18 concept.

The Mariners competed in the Victorian-based TAC Cup competition between 1995 and 2002, while the Tasmanian Devils were in the VFL for eight years from 2001.

"I just think the higher purpose of having something to connect with and belong with is really important – maybe even if it's a reintroduction of the Tassie Mariners," Bolton said.

"It gives you something to be proud of; a state team, as a start point. The other motivation for people is trying just to be a master of what they do.

"A lot of the young kids in Tasmania don't really know what they can achieve or what they need to compare to, unless they're playing against some of the best talent in the country every week."

 

[madmug]

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-05-18/call-for-youth-state-team-as-tassie-football-celebrates

But Bolton, who is in his second year at the Blues, met with AFL Tasmania chief executive Rob Auld in the past fortnight to discuss the revival of the Tassie Mariners under-18 concept.

The Mariners competed in the Victorian-based TAC Cup competition between 1995 and 2002, while the Tasmanian Devils were in the VFL for eight years from 2001.

"I just think the higher purpose of having something to connect with and belong with is really important – maybe even if it's a reintroduction of the Tassie Mariners," Bolton said.

"It gives you something to be proud of; a state team, as a start point. The other motivation for people is trying just to be a master of what they do.

"A lot of the young kids in Tasmania don't really know what they can achieve or what they need to compare to, unless they're playing against some of the best talent in the country every week."

It would be nice if one day the AFL could do something sensible for football here. The problem with the full time Mariner program were a big part of why it stopped in the first place. So lets do it again why dont we!!!!!

God spare my days

 

[NoobPie]

It would be nice if one day the AFL could do something sensible for football here. The problem with the full time Mariner program were a big part of why it stopped in the first place. So lets do it again why dont we!!!!!

God spare my days

Cheer up.

It's remarkable that three of the 18 AFL senior coaches are from Tasmania

 

[madmug]

Cheer up.

It's remarkable that three of the 18 AFL senior coaches are from Tasmania

That, the players & 2 FIFO clubs does nothing for Tasmanian football.
So why bother.

 

[Kwality]

It would be nice if one day the AFL could do something sensible for football here. The problem with the full time Mariner program were a big part of why it stopped in the first place. So lets do it again why dont we!!!!!

God spare my days

I'm sure Bolts is frustrated too mugsta, but repeating a failed initiative is only a chance if some honest evaluation of the previous failure is a must - you are right 100%, not sure what is being discussed is about Tassie footy at all, only about getting kids drafted.
Window dressing, moving the deck chairs on the Titanic ...

 

[madmug]

I'm sure Bolts is frustrated too mugsta, but repeating a failed initiative is only a chance if some honest evaluation of the previous failure is a must - you are right 100%, not sure what is being discussed is about Tassie footy at all, only about getting kids drafted.
Window dressing, moving the deck chairs on the Titanic ...

I've discussed this before & explained my opinion of an elite u18 club of kids from all over the state coming together & flying off to the mainland to play junior footy. It was too hard on the kids & families. It Affected study & other things & was promoted above the TSL which was plain stupid. The kids got pumpkin heads & when the couldnt cut it in mens TSL footy, a lot dropped off. An expensive waste of the investment $$$ that was.

If we had an AFL team then the mariners wouldnt get such swell heads, but the intra & interstate travel was too much IMO.

 

[Verdun]

Gillon McLachlan is playing the classical political play of divide and conquer, stating the state is divided and he respects that......absolute cop out, disgraceful. Difference now is it can be seen for what it is - a lazy excuse to do nothing.

Tasmania has been and is a place that solves problems for the AFL (Hawthorn and North both broke before coming here) and the AFL does nothing except for act in a patronizing tokenistic way.

One AFL / AFLW team here would unify the state, half the games played in the North (or a bit more than that, for people from NW to get there and that's from someone in the south) and the rest in the South.

For a start Tas needs to get strong and stop sponsoring both the Hawks and North, until then the AFL will continue to treat the state with disdain

 

[BringBackTorps]

Caroline Wilson wrote a good article in The Age yesterday about the dire state of Tasmanian football, caused by neglect & mismanagement. And that the glory days of Tasmania producing many VFL/AFL players have ended, unless Tas. football is revived.

At the Tasmanian Hall of Fame dinner in Melb. (!?) this week, attended by Mclachlan, many sombre photos were screened of famous Tasmanian football grounds that have been closed ie AF no longer played there eg Sandy Bay, Penguin. Shameful. The AFL has unprecedented huge amounts of money, but is failing in its responsibility as keeper of the code. As shareholders, we , the football public, don't hold it to account -for its profligacy & underperformance.

McLachlan has recently said several times that Tasmania will be the next team to be admitted to the AFL -but no dates given.(Probably after GWS & GC fully established, 10 -20 years?). Nth. Melb. or Footscray will never relocate/merge etc., go to Tas. -the nthn. & wst. suburbs' populations of Melb. are booming (relatively cheap land, "close"to the CBD with improving transport links), greatly aiding them.

Tas. MUST have a women's AFLW team, or have multiple games scheduled there, soon

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/footballs-lost-years-in-tasmania-20170518-gw88d6.html


MADMUG: Do you believe it would be more beneficial if the AFL created U18 or U19 Academies in Hobart & Lonny -& these players would play for several TSL teams, weekly (with one game also, per month, by a combined U18 Tas. or U19 team against a Vic. U18 TAC team)?
Too risky playing against the bigger bodies in the TSL?... Tas. needs to "think outside the square"?
(Very good U 19 players in Melb., over 75 kgs, often play suburban senior AF, usually on the wing, HF flanks, forward pockets -they develop faster by playing at a better, community adult AF standard. I have seen this at my club).

Tas. has c. 40,000 regd. players ( Tas., 540,000 pop.,very few immigrants). Easily outranking, per capita, Vic., WA. & SA. The western suburbs of Melb., pop., c. 800,000 ( c.45% immigrant background) probably has similar, or less, AF regd.nos.!
Tas. are true AF fanatics -AF needs the extraordinary assembly line of great players they constantly produced until the 90's. The AFL IS suffering, due to this mismanagement, causing a loss of significant talent.

 

[Kwality]

Tas has to be prepared to stand the AFL up, the failure of the AFL direct involvement in Tasmania has to be chronicled & publicised so the footy public are informed.
Two issues are in the hands of the Taswegians, paying AFL clubs to play there & the structure of Tas footy - put the AFL on notice that the current contracts will not be renewed & look to SA & WA support to return the admin of the game to Tasmania.
Being nice to big brother has failed, time for little brother to take control.

A quick look for the 2016 Annual Report for AFL Tas was unsuccessful.

 

[BringBackTorps]

Tas has to be prepared to stand the AFL up, the failure of the AFL direct involvement in Tasmania has to be chronicled & publicised so the footy public are informed.
Two issues are in the hands of the Taswegians, paying AFL clubs to play there & the structure of Tas footy - put the AFL on notice that the current contracts will not be renewed & look to SA & WA support to return the admin of the game to Tasmania.
Being nice to big brother has failed, time for little brother to take control.

A quick look for the 2016 Annual Report for AFL Tas was unsuccessful.

A good summary of recent Tas. AF history is here:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statewide_football_in_Tasmania

It is tragic to recall that, since 1960, Tasmania has defeated Victoria, WA & SA in State matches -probably wouldn't get within 20+ goals now.
Tas. has produced some of the greatest champions ever seen eg. Baldock, Stewart, Hudson, Hart & many others.
(Arguably also the greatest player of all time, Laurie Nash in the 30's. He kicked 18 goals in 3 quarters only, whilst in the forward line, in a State game against SA. Liked to kick torpedoes on his non-preferred foot: the only player in history who regularly did this)