The momentum continues to build for the introduction of a Tasmanian team into the AFL in the near future ahead of next month’s historic presidents’ vote.
Despite some reported resistance to the idea of a 19th team entering the competition on the Apple Isle from a few of the current club presidents, it would now be staggering if the Tassie team doesn’t get the green light.
And how exciting is that prospect? The AFL cannot call itself a truly national competition until one of its heartland states gets represented, and to see Tasmania finally rewarded with a team of its own would be thrilling.
After being neglected and taken for granted for so long, and basically slapped in the face when Gold Coast and western Sydney were granted teams ahead of it, Tasmania has earned the right to gain membership in the AFL.
However, in the last couple of years, countless stories in the media regarding a potential Tasmanian team have been accompanied by an image of the traditional Tasmanian state jumper.
While it’s a useful tool to get the point across about how important Tasmanian representation in the league would be, the prospective team should not fall into the trap of adopting that jumper as its own.
Let’s be clear: the Tasmanian AFL team would be a regular footy club playing club footy, not representative/state footy.
The AFL has had its own issues when it comes to conflating its own history with the rich history of the sport of Australian rules football, it would be downright wrong if the new Tasmanian football club did the same thing with the teams that represented the state in state of origin footy in the past.
The AFL’s Tassie team will not be a state team, and will feature players from all around the country. Hijacking the state of origin jumper would make little sense.
When West Coast entered the competition in 1987, it created its own identity and didn’t touch the WA state jumper, despite even being dubbed a virtual state team for their first few years of its existence.
The Adelaide Crows went down the same path in 1991 by respecting the SA state jumper, and even the Brisbane Bears left the Queensland state jumper alone when they were admitted the same year as the Eagles.
And when South Melbourne moved to Sydney in 1982, they didn’t adopt the iconic light blue of New South Wales either.
Heck, even the New Zealand Warriors in the NRL don't wear the same jumper as the country's traditional all-black design.
However, in the case of the Crows and Bears, they still used the traditional colours of their home states in a reimagined way. And that’s what the new Tasmanian team should do too.
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The Tassie colours of red, green and yellow are iconic and would serve as a huge asset in getting the whole state behind their new club. And even the famous state map can be utilised somewhere, perhaps over the left breast.
Granted, the Eagles, Crows and Bears entered the VFL/AFL when state of origin footy was still alive and well, so adopting state jumpers wouldn’t have been possible, while Tasmania’s arrival will occur some three decades after such a game was played.
However, history still matters and it’s important for the new Tasmanian team to forge its own identity. A delineation between the state representative team of the past, and the new football club of the future is paramount.
Besides, it can’t be completely ruled out that state of origin footy will return in some form in the future (as unlikely as it seems at the moment).
And as the JackJumpers in the NBL displayed this year, a modern fresh identity that everyone can get behind can quite easily be created.
Of course, footy has a much longer and richer history on the Apple Isle than basketball, but the whole state got swept up in JackJumper fever as they made it all the way to the grand final in their first season.
There are those who argue that the only way of unifying the state, and bridging the bitter north-south divide, is by using the traditional state jumper.
But the JackJumpers showed that with a bit of ingenuity and thinking out of the box, a new image that is truly Tasmanian can bring the entire island together and ensure the new AFL team hits the ground running.
