Team Tasmania a.k.a The Tassie Maps

[Redford]

The Tassie Blues. Its the only solution for that rabble.

Having said that, we need a Tassie team to be successful, so we would be dooming the whole state right from the outset if the AFL sent them down there. Maybe merge the Beyond Blues and Norf, and call them the Tassie Bluroos ? They might finish middle of the ladder at last. Touch and go.....

 

[Brodders17]

*smile* me, they are deadset *smile*

19 teams, 18 rounds , 9 home, 9 away & reverse the following year, how easy would that be

that would lead to a big loss of revenue through fewer games. not going to happen.

 

[Ian4]

big opportunity for other sports to get a foothold in tassie now. an NBL team is coming. An A-League team is coming. The AFL isn't coming it would appear.

*smile* me, they are deadset *smile*

19 teams, 18 rounds , 9 home, 9 away & reverse the following year, how easy would that be

yep. very easy to do and I have been arguing this very thing for a couple of year now.

that would lead to a big loss of revenue through fewer games. not going to happen.

Disagree strongly. With a shorter season, you expand the finals by an extra week. interest remains higher as teams are staying in the finals race for longer. This means less meaningless games at the end of the season. People remain interested for longer, which means higher crowds and TV ratings. higher revenue. less game also means higher quality games. players can extend their careers. i really can’t see any negatives

 

[AngryAnt]

big opportunity for other sports to get a foothold in tassie now. an NBL team is coming. An A-League team is coming. The AFL isn't coming it would appear.



yep. very easy to do and I have been arguing this very thing for a couple of year now.



Disagree strongly. With a shorter season, you expand the finals by an extra week. interest remains higher as teams are staying in the finals race for longer. This means less meaningless games at the end of the season. People remain interested for longer, which means higher crowds and TV ratings. higher revenue. less game also means higher quality games. players can extend their careers. i really can’t see any negatives

Removing say four rounds of 8 games is 32 fewer games. Fewer games and the TV stations/streamers offer less money. It's really that simple.

 

[Tenacious]

Get rid of Norf. Bring in Tassie.

Simultaneously

 

[Panthera Tigris]

Will PRE Tasmanians that follow Richmond, stop following the Tiges and start following the Tassie Roos or whatever they are going to be if they start up ?

Or once a Tige forever a Tige ?

Tasmanian born and bred here with an indescribable attachment to the island that will be with me until the day I die. My times spent living interstate, these strong feelings never subsided. Kind of like Scots who feel both Scottish and British. I feel just as Tasmanian (probably even more so) as Australian.

So a Tasmanian team established from scratch, with an inherent Tasmanian identity from day 1 - in the mould of the Adelaide Crows - yes I would most certainly follow and get behind. A bastardised North Melbourne as the Tassie Kangas or whatever.......it's a no from me, would feel no affiliation with them.

 

[Ian4]

Removing say four rounds of 8 games is 32 fewer games. Fewer games and the TV stations/streamers offer less money. It's really that simple.

I don't think it’s that simple. an extra week of finals gives us 4 more. games. You can have a state of origin carnival midseason. You can expand the AFLW to 18 home and away games as well. There are so many ways to make more money for the game.

 

[Panthera Tigris]

big opportunity for other sports to get a foothold in tassie now. an NBL team is coming. An A-League team is coming. The AFL isn't coming it would appear.

Yes the game feels as if it's in terminal decline in the state. Where that decline leads is hard to tell. Perhaps over coming generations it retreats towards being a niche activity like Rugby Union is in the southern states. A sad outcome when you think it was one of the purest Aussie Rules regions anywhere in the country. Just as much as country Victoria, possibly even more so in some parts. That said, the junior scene seemed a bit more vibrant in Launceston compared to Hobart when I was visiting that end of the state earlier in the season. So that was a pleasant surprise.

But I can't help to feel that it just isn't an interwoven part of the community fabric as it was in the 1980s-90s when I was growing up. Look at the solid State of Origin teams Tasmania put on the park in the late 80s-early 90s, with players balanced from all regions across the state. It was testament to the bond that the community had with the sport across the entire island. Contrast that to today, where we would struggle to fill a team.

The sport just isn't as strongly ingrained to the local culture as it once was. Not the level of passion. So as a state do we cut our losses and put funding into other areas. Perhaps have a policy that State Government coffers fund no elite sport and it is all put into the grass roots part of the pyramid doubling up as health policy. Or as you suggest, focus on other sports. As well as the NBL and A-League that you discuss. Tasmanian athletes went pretty bloody well in the pool, on the track and on the bike at the Tokyo games. And we've always produced decent rowers with the world class Lake Barrington rowing course being accessible to all levels of rower. So there are few other areas resources would be welcome to be redirected to.

 

[Redford]

Tasmanian born and bred here with an indescribable attachment to the island that will be with me until the day I die. My times spent living interstate, these strong feelings never subsided. Kind of like Scots who feel both Scottish and British. I feel just as Tasmanian (probably even more so) as Australian.

So a Tasmanian team established from scratch, with an inherent Tasmanian identity from day 1 - in the mould of the Adelaide Crows - yes I would most certainly follow and get behind. A bastardised North Melbourne as the Tassie Kangas or whatever.......it's a no from me, would feel no affiliation with them.

What about Richmond though ? Where do they lie ?

 

[Panthera Tigris]

What about Richmond though ? Where do they lie ?

With a relocated team, no change. I would remain Richmond through and through. No interest in a rebadged North Melb et al.

An inherently Tasmanian identity on establishment. I would struggle to watch the two play each other. Maybe Tasmania by a smidge, but hard to tell how I would really feel until it happened.

But what I will add. From my perspective it really isn't remotely related to someone just jumping ship from team to team. It's an entity being established that represents an identity that goes to the core of my existence, in a sport I love vs a club I have followed for all of my life. Hence the torn feelings, but Tasmania probably comes out just on top....maybe.....but I can't really tell unless it actually happened.

 

[Redford]

With a relocated team, no change. I would remain Richmond through and through. No interest in a rebadged North Melb et al.

An inherently Tasmanian identity on establishment. I would struggle to watch the two play each other. Maybe Tasmania by a smidge, but hard to tell how I would really feel until it happened.

But what I will add. From my perspective it really isn't remotely related to someone just jumping ship from team to team. It's an entity being established that represents an identity that goes to the core of my existence, in a sport I love vs a club I have followed for all of my life. Hence the torn feelings, but Tasmania probably comes out just on top....maybe.....but I can't really tell unless it actually happened.

Interesting. You mentioned you would struggle to watch a proper Tasmanian team play Richmond and you’d be torn. I suspect most mature ie 20+ Tasmanian football followers with super strong family ties to an existing AFL team - that in most cases run generations - would also struggle.

To that end, my worry is that if a Tasmanian team isn’t successful quickly, a large proportion of these mature age followers will revert to their AFL allegiances and be lost to the team making it a bloody hard chore from thereon in. And we already have GC and GWS in much bigger market areas having to be propped up by the AFL.

Anyway, if Carter says it could work who am I to argue.

 

[Panthera Tigris]

Interesting. You mentioned you would struggle to watch a proper Tasmanian team play Richmond and you’d be torn. I suspect most mature ie 20+ Tasmanian football followers with super strong family ties to an existing AFL team - that in most cases run generations - would also struggle.

To that end, my worry is that if a Tasmanian team isn’t successful quickly, a large proportion of these mature age followers will revert to their AFL allegiances and be lost to the team making it a bloody hard chore from thereon in. And we already have GC and GWS in much bigger market areas having to be propped up by the AFL.

Anyway, if Carter says it could work who am I to argue.

In that context, I suppose the question is, are my family ties deeper to Tasmania or the current AFL club I follow? Tasmania comes out on top there (6-7 generations vs 2). So couldn't see myself jumping off regardless. But my interest in Richmond would not disappear, that's for sure.

And my kids having a Tasmanian team from earlier on in their life likely wouldn't have any torn allegiances.

So I say it could work. But the only chance it ever has of working is if it is inherently Tasmanian from day one. We are talking a market of only 500k odd people, so it is crucially important to unite the state behind it from day one, or it dies a quick death. Which is what I see would happen under the alternate scenario, of a rebadged Victorian team relocating. Maybe that's what the AFL want to engineer, so they can say, "we told you so."

 

[Redford]

In that context, I suppose the question is, are my family ties deeper to Tasmania or the current AFL club I follow? Tasmania comes out on top there (6-7 generations vs 2). So couldn't see myself jumping off regardless. But my interest in Richmond would not disappear, that's for sure.

And my kids having a Tasmanian team from earlier on in their life likely wouldn't have any torn allegiances.

So I say it could work. But the only chance it ever has of working is if it is inherently Tasmanian from day one. We are talking a market of only 500k odd people, so it is crucially important to unite the state behind it from day one, or it dies a quick death. Which is what I see would happen under the alternate scenario, of a rebadged Victorian team relocating. Maybe that's what the AFL want to engineer, so they can say, "we told you so."

So, on the united front, given the 30 year effort to have a strong statewide league down there has been an unmitigated disaster - and in my opinion the root cause of why football has deteriorated so badly in the state - how do you see the very very strong regional bias or parochialism working where having united support for a Tasmanian AFL team is concerned ?

The team has to be based somewhere - most likely Hobart - so how will people from the North and North West embrace the team ? Will they travel 1.5 to 3 hours in the car to go and watch a Tasmanian team based in Hobart and follow and support them ? Or will it all be too hard like its been for them and their local teams in the statewide league ? It is a very very decentralised 500k population down there.

 

[spook]

500k is a lot bigger than Geelong.

Why couldn't a Tassie team play six games in Hobart and five in Lonny. Or five in each and one in Devonport?

 

[Redford]

500k is a lot bigger than Geelong.

Why couldn't a Tassie team play six games in Hobart and five in Lonny. Or five in each and one in Devonport?

That 500k is one of the most decentralised state populations in the nation.

And you cant have an AFL team playing its home games all over the place. They need a home. A base.

 

[spook]

That 500k is one of the most decentralised state populations in the nation.

And you cant have an AFL team playing its home games all over the place. They need a home. A base.

Build it and they will come.

 

[Willo]

Build it and they will come.

Dreamin’

 

[gold1]

Reckon the AFL will force the Tiges to relocate after we win this year's flag

 

[seven]

So the AFL revealed the details of the Tasmanian AFL Team report. Yes, Tasmanian should have a team but it should be a relocated Team and not a new 19th Team. I see the merits of it, looking at how the Swans and Lions are fairly well established vs the Giants & Suns.

But I can see Tasmanians and #lolNorf supporters reacting strongly against that proposal.

Thoughts?

Reading between the lines sounds like the AFL want Tassie to stop funding North and Hawthorn. Which ever one falls over, they get that club.

 

[AngryAnt]

So I say it could work. But the only chance it ever has of working is if it is inherently Tasmanian from day one. We are talking a market of only 500k odd people, so it is crucially important to unite the state behind it from day one, or it dies a quick death. Which is what I see would happen under the alternate scenario, of a rebadged Victorian team relocating. Maybe that's what the AFL want to engineer, so they can say, "we told you so."

Not even the AFL would throw away hundreds of millions of dollars just to say that.