Experienced sports boradcaster Tim Lane believes the AFL must introduce a team in Tasmania if football is going to continue to be a big sport in the state.
In recent days, Burnie and Devonport have confirmed they will not field teams in the Tasmanian State League (TSL), with Lane believing football in the Apple Isle has been overlooked.
โThe only way to drive the game forward in Tasmania is for the state to have a team in the AFL,โ Lane told SENโs KB and The Doc on Thursday afternoon.
โWithout it, it continues to be at risk, of if not dying, of certainly losing its place, and it once was one of the big four states in the country, and it has been pathetically neglected.โ
โDevonport and Burnie, and these are the third and fourth cities of Tasmania, and the fact that they canโt put teams together in the State League shows that there is something wrong.
โThe production line from indications of recent drafts suggests that there arenโt the young kids being produced, that are playing footy at the highest level.โ
Lane doesn't understand how a team hasn't already been placed in Tasmania, given the state government is throwing millions of dollars at Victorian clubs just to schedule a game in Tassie.
โI spoke a year ago with Peter Gordon. Heโs had two incarnations as the President of the Western Bulldogs, or Footscray as they were known in previous times,โ Lane added.
โHeโs seen them as paupers, who were almost forced into a merger, and as premiers in the last 18 months.
โHe knows the funding of clubs, the support packages and so on work, and he said to me thereโs absolutely no economic case against Tasmania having a team.
โAs for Tasmaniaโs domestic economy, itโs throwing millions of dollars at funding two Melbourne based clubs? Why should it be funding the coffers of a couple of teams that represent suburban Melbourne, and not at a team of its own?โ
Lane, a Tasmanian himself, understands just how big a team in the Apple Isle will be, suggesting it would be one of the biggest stories in the history of the state.
โIf Tasmania has its own football team in the AFL it would be the most uniting thing in the stateโs history.
โI canโt think of anything that tends to bring people together like a football code does.โ
As it stands, the TSL now has just seven clubs in the competition.
