Empire overreach.
When Augustus came to power in the Roman Empire the first thing he did was stop expansion. There was a time for consolidation.
Greedy executives in the AFL will never have the wisdom of an Augustus. They see it as their "legacy" to have done something magnificent.
How about consolidating the teams already in this already overly large competition. Rome didn't have the resources for an extra 10,000 troops in a new conquered territory. Similarly, the AFL is going to bleed the competition dry to establish a new team. How many picks do they get? Isn't anyone sick of this process .....again.
Essendon has not won a final for over 10 years.
North Melbourne has problems.
Gold Coast - problems.
West Coast - problems.
Are these problems no longer important?
Nothing matters other than glittering gold in Tasmania.
Tasmania might be viable in 20 years time, but let's solve the problems of the now NOW.
In what way do WCE have problems? Probably the richest club in the country.
Everything except Tasmanian football has mattered for 160 years.
Its about time, especially now we have 18 AFL clubs, that Tasmania gets a place at the AFL table.
If the AFL had been set up properly in the first place, we wouldn't have so many clubs in one place & clogging up the works.