AFL issues challenge to Tasmania: prove yourself worthy
Ten years after opting out of the VFL, Tasmania has been granted provisional entry back into the competition from 2021.
It is that word, though — provisional — that hangs over its head.
AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan wants Tasmanians to unite behind a VFL team. What that means in practical terms has not been explained.
He wants guarantees around the quality of talent a team would require, as well as its sustainability.
The age-old questions of where it will be based and what part Tasmania's unique geography will play are set to rear their heads. Only after these questions are adequately answered will Tasmania be granted entry into the Victorian state league.
And then what?
It is hoped that Tasmania's second crack at the VFL will act as an audition of sorts for greater things.
At Tuesday's press conference McLachlan was asked if a 10-year-old playing football in Tasmania today could aspire to play for a Tasmanian AFL team.
"I think they can. And I think that looks to the success of the next four or five years," he said.
But we have to get there first.
You cannot help but feel the gauntlet has been thrown down by the AFL and that a failure by Tasmania to mobilise a successful VFL team will only prove its hypothesis correct: Tasmania is not ready for the big league.
The VFL of 2021 will be a different beast to the competition that Tasmania competed in the early to mid 2000s.
The majority of clubs are directly AFL-aligned and Tasmania would be butting heads with clubs boasting lists littered with AFL talent.
For example, Geelong's VFL team boasted 11 AFL-listed players on the weekend. Hawthorn affiliate club Box Hill had 14.
Does "provisional" set us up to fail before we even start?
If a Tasmanian team does fail to garner support and be competitive, maybe the AFL has a point?
Those hoping for an announcement of plans for a Tasmanian AFL licence today would be disappointed by today's news.
Brendon Bolton, Chris Fagan and Nick Riewoldt are said to have pushed hard on the steering committee, but today was never about that according to McLachlan.
"Right now Tasmanian football is fractured and fragmented. The talent pathways are fragmented. Community football inter-relationships aren't working," he said.
"This plan deals with all of those issues. But we need to deal with them and build the base, and get Tasmanian football united before Tasmania is in a position to bid for a licence."
He admitted that game development in Tasmania had been neglected, but was unable to precisely label who and what forces were directly responsible.
Today signalled a Back To The Future moment for Tasmanian football, and the AFL has set its DeLorean time machine to 1999.
It's bringing back the Tassie Mariners under-18 team, which will compete in the TAC Cup full-time.
It's also announced plans for a new under-18 women's team, which will feed into the North Melbourne Tasmania AFLW setup, and our elite junior talent pathway will begin from the under-12 age group rather than under-16.
The AFL is footing the bill.
With all the focus on our AFL aspirations, the changes to lower tier local competitions shouldn't be understated.
Affiliation of local and community leagues should help correct the local footy ecosystem, which is currently severely out of whack.
An injection of $1.4 million from next year to help facilitate this, as well as to set up regional hubs and employ a North-West talent manager can't be sneezed at either.
While today's announcements are positive on the surface, questions will continue to be asked.
The TSL presidents will be no more convinced their competition will survive beyond 2023 when its current licence agreement expires.
How they can be expected to be the primary drivers of increasing junior participation with only a small funding increase is also up in the air.
The Tasmanian public are no more certain whether or not their tax dollars will fund Hawthorn and North Melbourne deals beyond 2021.
And while a successful Tasmanian VFL entity may serve as a potential stepping stone to the AFL, our big league hopes remain laced with uncertainty.
[contf]
[contfnew]
ABC .net
[contfnewc]
[contfnewc]
