Before the advent of West Coast and Fremantle barely anyone gave a shit about the old VFL over here.
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AFLW 2024 - Round 10 - Chat, game threads, injury lists, team lineups and more.
Tasmania
- Thread starter blaze036
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Before the advent of West Coast and Fremantle barely anyone gave a shit about the old VFL over here.
The_Reaper
Hall of Famer
And who do the children end up supporting?
I'm sure their state league had a half decent following back in the day though. Certainly a hell of a lot more than it gets now.
Norchy_pies4life
Team Captain
From what I've seen and heard you followed your state level team and a VFL team. People wouldn't of started following their VFL/AFL team more in most cases until around the same time as the other states.
Vics then, as now, looked elsewhere for talent ... the rape of Tassie footy was a VFL art form.
Sorry I dont agree that it that much was different in WA/SA. The real following of VFL probably took off more as it was increasingly televised during the 1970's/80's. As a kid I would read about Collingwood but I only called them my VFL team because my family did, but we were all much more interested in the local TFL football back then.
When guys like Hudson, Baldock, Hart etc stared in Melbourne then certainly interest started to grow back then, but it never dominated our thinking like AFL does now.
The last point is so self evident. Of course people tend to say which AFL club they follow rather than a local club. That's for the reasons above & the FACT that unlike all other states, we DONT HAVE AN OPTION, captain obvious.
Sorry I dont agree that it that much was different in WA/SA. The real following of VFL probably took off more as it was increasingly televised during the 1970's/80's. As a kid I would read about Collingwood but I only called them my VFL team because my family did, but we were all much more interested in the local TFL football back then.
When guys like Hudson, Baldock, Hart etc stared in Melbourne then certainly interest started to grow back then, but it never dominated our thinking like AFL does now.
The last point is so self evident. Of course people tend to say which AFL club they follow rather than a local club. That's for the reasons above & the FACT that unlike all other states, we DONT HAVE AN OPTION, captain obvious.
Hang on, I was comparing the VFL back in the mid-late 80's in WA and SA with the AFL in Tasmania now. Clearly there's no comparison - the VFL wasn't even close to the most followed football league anywhere outside Victoria. Yet obviously a lot more people in Tassie now follow the AFL than their local state league club. I'm not suggesting Tassie was any different to WA and SA back in the 80's (it might have been, I wouldn't know).
Although just on your first point - all we got on TV back in the 80's from the VFL was the Winners on Sunday night and finals. We didn't even get live Saturday afternoon footy from the AFL until about 1994 unless it involved the Eagles, and it was about the same time that Friday night games were taken out of the graveyard shift.
Sorry if I am confused, but I dont follow your point. I just know that many people changed who they followed when the VFL/AFL show came to town in those other states. A lot of that would have been due to the flooding of the media by the AFL competition. & why not, it is supposed to be the national competition.
The same would happen here. Maybe not as quickly if they just dump a Victorian team on us. It would probably take a lot longer to get a relocated team to be accepted by Tasmanians, generations infact.
I'm all for a Tassie team, but has the horse bolted in terms of Tasmanian's quitting their Victorian club to follow a local side?
It just seems to me that almost every Tasmanian follows a Vic team, most reasonably passionately. They always seemed to but it now seems very entrenched. The difference between the WA and SA situation is that with the advent of the Eagles and Crows, they lept out of a time where the WAFL and SANFL were far more important to the locals than the VFL was. The VFL had only really come into the SA publics conciousness in the early to mid 80's, a little earlier in WA, but it was by no means the biggest show in town. if you asked people who they supported, it was Glenelg or Norwood etc not Carlton and Essendon.
Sure there are many in South Australia who could not stomach the Crows and could never support Port and so they stuck with their VFL team, but at the time, in WA and SA parochialism and football pride easily trumped any faint VFL team allegiances most of the football populace had in both states, but I'm not sure, 20-25 years on, that it would do the same in Tassie. This of course is only my impression from a far, locals might say it is different.
It just seems to me that almost every Tasmanian follows a Vic team, most reasonably passionately. They always seemed to but it now seems very entrenched. The difference between the WA and SA situation is that with the advent of the Eagles and Crows, they lept out of a time where the WAFL and SANFL were far more important to the locals than the VFL was. The VFL had only really come into the SA publics conciousness in the early to mid 80's, a little earlier in WA, but it was by no means the biggest show in town. if you asked people who they supported, it was Glenelg or Norwood etc not Carlton and Essendon.
Sure there are many in South Australia who could not stomach the Crows and could never support Port and so they stuck with their VFL team, but at the time, in WA and SA parochialism and football pride easily trumped any faint VFL team allegiances most of the football populace had in both states, but I'm not sure, 20-25 years on, that it would do the same in Tassie. This of course is only my impression from a far, locals might say it is different.
Others may have there own opinions but I feel if we started our own team then most footy locals would buy memberships & support it, maybe still following another club as well. Tassie & Collingwood for instance
. Overtime the new Tassie club would get stronger support. If it were a relocated team (god forbid!) then the process would be a hell of a lot slower & more painful for some who would have lost their club, like Fitzroy or South Melbourne did. IMO.
I wouldn't stop supporting essendon but would by a Tas membership and attend all their launceston games.
Super sub
Team Captain
I am a swans member and sit with a lot of people around me who used to support other teams, over the years of going to watch swans games they have become swans fans.
Just a natural progression. I know a lot a people reading this will say that they could never support another team, but try going to the footy for 5 years and cheering for a team and one day you wake up and you realize you have changed allegiances.
Same would happen in tassie
FFS, a comment was made that implied WA and SA people ditched their VFL teams for local ones so Tassie would as well. My point was that it was a very different situation back then in WA and SA to what it is in Tassie now. Not suggesting Tassie people wouldn't follow a Tassie team, but it's hard to dispute that they would be a lot more attached to their AFL team now than WA and SA people were about their VFL team back in the 80's.
I see what you mean - it would differentiate the the causal supporter from the diehard. It would be a tricky situation for someone like me who strongly associates with being Tasmanian but then of course is a passionate Essendon supporter. It's a bit like if Tasmania came up against Australia in cricket.
100 % of Tasmanian football followers would have a AFL team they supported...getting those people to change teams would be very difficult, as most have supported their teams from back in the VFL days...i for one would never even consider dumping my team for a Tasmanian team .
The thing is that it's just as easy to get to melbourne to watch your team play as it would be to travel from one end of the state to the other .
The thing is that it's just as easy to get to melbourne to watch your team play as it would be to travel from one end of the state to the other .
Its not about dumping anything. Its about buying memberships & going to games.
Their would be people who dont really follow any team closely who may follow a local team if it existed. Still others would change over time. Young kids would grow up with the local team. Things would change with more regular matches played in Tasmania by a Tasmanian team playing all the other clubs in the AFL. Some who would never otherwise play here.
If you want to fly over to Melbourne then goodluck to you. Many people wouldnt.
Super sub
Team Captain
Whilst they do support Melbourne, WA, SA teams. For the majority it is not at the same level of support as Victorians or WA's etc. They don't get to the footy to support their team and the support is more passive. I know that is not everyone but it is the case for an awful lot.
They are however very passionate about their state. If a state team came in for the majority it would become their 1st team for others it would be their 2nd team. In time after going to the footy for many years it would eventually become their 1st team. This scenario has already happened with thousands of swans fans who were ex pat Victorians.
Yeah but Swans fans, in all seriousness, are mostly band wagoners.
But most supporters are
Where a club may have 30-60,000 paid up members, most dont go to all games & they also have many more who identify with that club but dont get memberships or attend matches.
Super sub
Team Captain
Yes and most tasmanians have two heads, but you can't count that as two memberships.
Try and think before you open your mouth. You give tasmanians a bad name.
Why not? All the merrier
Alright, may comment was tongue-in-cheek and was only a light joke, but shouldn't have been said in hindsight, and has come across poorly, so let's get back on track folks.
Fair summation of my experience BUT my solution is to strip a non performing Melb team of their licence, not relocate it.
Sayonara Motors for the coaching squad & the admin , only the playing list moves & the new coach/admin team cut & shut the playing list as they fancy.
Here is news flash: there are too many teams in Melbourne.
