AS a passionate and proud AFL state with a strong record of developing some of the greatest VFL/AFL players of the past 100 years, Tasmania is a sucker for the heartache that comes from investing in the romantic notion that it will one day hold its own with a stand-alone AFL team.

That is, a team not sponsored by Tasmania or hosting other clubs in Tasmania. Not selling out 150 years of Tasmanian history to ensure that winter tourism gets a tasty boost by providing financial leg-upmanship to Victorian clubs willing to sell out on their own member base.

I am talking Tasmania, the stand-alone AFL team.

The Thylacines — or something equally extinct Tiger-related, without breaching the intellectual property of the current Tigers of Richmond.

Round 18

The painful success of rival sports among the compulsive-obsessives of AFL in Tasmania act as a constant reminder of how well received, followed and successful a stand-alone AFL team would be.

Look at the success of the Hobart Hurricanes in the BBL. They don’t even represent the entire state, but continually sell out every home game.

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That is 20,000 people exclusively travelling to Blundstone Arena that are brave enough to wear an overtly-feminine shade of purple without the need for an artificial hallucinogenic. Of course, there is the lure of a hot summer’s night and an ice-cold beer in the middle of school holidays, but it’s not footy.

And due to the lack of stand-alone state footy representation, the locals throw their desperation for a sporting identity behind a team that doesn’t represent the entire state and whose performance has been on the nose for the last three seasons.

Then there is the likely A-League ticket that is a completed stadium away from being granted.

The reports coming from within government departments is that the inclusion of Tasmania as a full-time playing member of the A-League is a foregone conclusion. All it needs to do is convince the governing body that the planned 15,000 capacity soccer stadium will double as a premium music venue, can be aptly funded without A-League cost and cater for the demands of professional soccer as a training and playing facility.

North Melbourne plays multiple games each season in Tasmania. Picture: Nicole Garmston Source: News Corp Australia

Tassie’s current soccer facilities would see visiting teams travelling back to a time where playing in front of horn-happy fans in cars after a score and splitting two showerheads and a bath between two professional teams were acceptable.

The funding on this one is backed heavily by a private investment group, of which one member is said to be from a Forbes rich list — who, well, are the filthiest richest people on the planet. The local government has thrown its support behind it, while local fans, who are so desperate for their sporting identity to be credible, have vowed to buy soccer memberships. Yes — soccer.

Yet what is remarkable in all of this is the fact that those two sports — cricket and soccer — can’t compete with AFL when it comes to talented young athletes choosing between their summer sport and the round-ball game. The opportunity to chase that shared romantic notion of the supporters — a life in the AFL system where you live and breathe the game that has treated Tasmania like the girlfriend who only loves you when she comes back from uni break and is craving money and attention — is unrivalled.

Cricket is feeling the pinch hard — so much so that it waged a war on all football codes by holding its National Under 17 boys carnivals at the back-end of September, in the hope of challenging the commitment of those boys engaged in their winter AFL-NRL seasons.

And still, in Tasmania, cricket lost.

Rather than make the hard calls on kids who were wavering on their full commitment to the summer game — as was strategically planned through the timing of the carnival — cricket allowed them flexibility in their commitment to meet the demands of both sports. The result? Many quit cricket post-Christmas to pursue the Tassie Mariners (AFL Under 18 Program) pre-season.

Many Tasmanian youngsters have given up cricket to play footy despite the lack of a stand-alone Tassie team. Source: News Corp Australia

That tells a pretty damning tale of how badly even the young talent of Tasmania wants to pursue that romantic notion of being an AFL representative for a state whose history and deep grassroots ties that has provided an unwavering tradition for 150 years.

Tasmania bleeds AFL.

So, has the state government sold its soul with regard to the romantic notion of a stand-alone AFL team?

Investment into winter tourism and the Tasmanian brand have no doubt been a worthy investment. But by providing the market with what it wants and allowing the game to grow in Tasmania through the investment of struggling Melbourne clubs, what damage has been done to the push for Tasmania? That is not ‘sponsored by Tasmania’, not hosting other clubs in Tasmania — this is a stand-alone AFL team.

You feel that for it to happen now, it will take a complete shift in the strategy of the AFL and its calculated approach to capital and commercial growth.

The departure of chairman Mike Fitzpatrick might be a blessing, as there is a genuine need for the AFL to look at the romance in this.

This is now about rewarding the proud history of a state whose juniors continue to strive for that state representation, regardless of the lack of AFL-level map that takes pride of place on their jumper. That map sits in their hearts — and as a romantic, I hold on to hope that the AFL will return from uni one summer holidays and stay with us forever.