Tasmania enters the AFL with a stirring show of unity that should make SA envious | Graham Cornes

Tasmania will enter the AFL while riding a wave of goodwill. It wasn’t like that for the Crows, writes Graham Cornes.

I shouldn’t have been jealous. I know it’s a curse but it was unavoidable. Down in Hobart, the announcement of Tasmania’s new AFL team on Wednesday was met with glorious, unanimous jubilation.

Well, almost unanimous.

Apart from the protests of a Greens politician and a few naysayers about building a stadium on Macquarie Point, it was a wild, state-wide celebration.

Actually, the Greens politician had a point about the hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on a new stadium and centre of excellence in Hobart and upgrades of UTas stadium in Launceston when Tasmanians are struggling to pay mortgages and put food on their tables. But why let reality spoil a good celebration?

No, it had been a wonderful, national campaign that paid dividends when AFL boss Gillon McLachlan arrived messianic-like to deliver the good news.

Tasmania would have its own AFL team in 2028.

Not only that, all forms of government and the AFL would chip in to fund the team and the necessary facilities. What a glorious day. So why the jealousy?

For those with memories long enough, think back to the genesis of the Crows. We were a club born not out of unity but division. In 1990, never had football in this state been so divided. Never had emotions run so high.

Graham Cornes points out the winning margin to Hawks fans at Hawthorn v Adelaide Crows, Waverley Park, 1992.

It was the AFL who had driven this division by pitting a club against the state. “Divide and Conquer”. It’s a devious Machiavellian strategy that attempts to tear institutions down by any means. Friends become enemies, families are torn apart and trust is forever broken.

That’s what South Australian football looked and felt like in October, 1990. There was no wild celebration, just a simple resolve that reluctantly, we had to do this. We had to leave friends behind, some of who would never recover; others would never forgive us for abandoning them.

What made it worse was that we, the South Australian football public, had to pay the AFL for this privilege. Due to the foresight and courage of football administrators like Max Basheer, Don Brebner, Ray Kutcher, Leigh Whicker and others too numerous to mention, we had a football stadium that held 50,000 spectators and had the best sporting surface in the country.

Imagine how much better that could have been made with AFL, federal and state government money? We could have put a roof over it and had transport infrastructure to rival the best sporting facilities in the world.

Now, 30 years later that vision has been supplanted by the new Adelaide Oval. It may be the best venue in the country but even that was created by treachery and division. And football doesn’t own it. And football can’t use it 365 days of the year. And it doesn’t have a roof.

John Klug and Romano Negri after losing to Carlton at Football Park, March 31, 1991.

Then there was the timeline. Tasmania has five years to prepare its team for the 2028 AFL season. The Crows had five months before the first game in 1991. Strangely enough, it’s only now that we look back and think what a ridiculously short time that was. At the time it didn’t seem like it as things steadily fell into place.

Then there is the access to the players that will form this new team. There will be generous concessions. AFL Players Association president, Patrick Dangerfield even made the outrageous but innovative suggestion that the new Tasmanian team should be able to recruit any player in the competition, regardless of contracts that are in place.

This on top of the draft concessions that they will surely get, as did the new teams in Sydney and on the Gold Coast. It may seem disrespectful now given the effort and performances of those pioneer Crows players, but how much different might it have been if Adelaide had access to the 1990 and 1991 national drafts, other players from outside South Australia and equitable father/son laws?

The genius of Malcolm Blight brought successive premierships in 1997 and 1998, but there is only one Malcolm Blight.

Adelaide Crows superstar Rory Laird claims his third Malcolm Blight Medal (best and fairest) after a phenomenal 2022 season. Picture: AFC

Wednesday’s announcement of the new licence was made on the historic North Hobart Oval. As divided and complicated as Tasmanian football has been over the centuries, it is the state’s spiritual home of football.

It’s a delightful ground, the heritage stands reminiscent of football’s glory days since passed. I’ve written before of the state game South Australia played on that ground on the holiday Monday, June 14th 1971, and Wednesday brought those memories flooding back.

So many memories: the incandescent fury of our coach Neil Kerley when he learned that Tasmania had rested its players on the Saturday when we had played Victoria on the MCG just two days prior. The curfew that he imposed on us the night before the game and the inventive way John Wynne devised to circumvent it.

The rabid crowd banging on the side of our team bus as we drove into the ground. The snow on top of Mount Wellington which beetled over the ground – a stunning backdrop. The most parochial umpiring that we had ever experienced. (Russell Ebert took mark of the year only to have it taken off him by the umpire who said he had “jumped too early”).

Peter Darley rucking against Bob Pascoe – two old warriors continually crashing into each other. Seeing at close hand the genius of AFL Legend Darroll Baldock, who was Tasmania’s captain-coach. The relief at winning.

Tasmanian AFL legend and former Crows coach Robert Shaw. Picture: Linda Higginson

Former Crows coach, Robert Shaw, a student of the game and a proud Tasmanian who coached his state team to its only win over Victoria in Tasmania only recently sent me a carefully handwritten summary of that game compiled by Tasmanian football historian Adrian Collins.

We won by 34 points, Ray Huppatz kicked five goals, Malcolm Greenslade and Terry von Bertouch each kicked four, and John Cahill started on the bench (amazing). Russell Ebert was our best player.

On last Wednesday’s announcement, News Corp journalist Brett Stubbs wrote a whimsical piece for the Hobart Mercury, journeying through Tasmania’s storied football history.

The names are iconic: Hudson, Baldock, Hart, Stewart, Riewoldt. He lionises the politicians and administrators that drove it; the women pioneers who are so often overlooked, and the fans that will benefit.

There is nothing but joyful expectation in the air, reminiscent of the unifying announcement of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Tasmanian football deserves this. It’s such an exciting time. A state united in its celebrations. I’m jealous.