No more Mr Nice State as Tasmania takes the fight to AFL and unsustainable clubs

Tasmania has played nicely for long enough, now it is bringing some attitude to the AFL – and winning some plaudits along the way.

Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame. Newly inducted Icon Tim Lane. Wrest Point.

TASMANIAN Premier Peter Gutwein has laid “the smackdown” on the AFL and ruffled feathers in Melbourne over culling unfinancial clubs.

Mr Gutwein said the current crisis presented the AFL with an opportunity to make the competition truly national by dumping unsustainable teams to bring in a Tasmanian club.

One of the league’s most respected voices, SEN presenter and Fox Footy host Gerard Whateley said while the reaction to the state taking a Melbourne club’s licence was fairly hostile in the Victorian capital, it was clear Tasmania was no longer playing nice with the AFL and was starting to talk the league HQ’s language.

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“It was either a misstep or the Premier was laying the smackdown,” Whateley told the Mercury.

“I initially thought the former but I now think it is the latter.

“I think he is tired of the niceties and the condescending idea that, ‘yes Tassie deserves a team’, but this harnesses the challenge.

“All the thresholds Tasmania is being asked to clear, a great many of the current clubs couldn’t meet and even less so in the current circumstances.

“It was dispensing with the niceties and getting down to business — ‘if you want a national competition, it needs to be in Tasmania and you’ve got plenty of teams that are faltering by your own standards.’

“It was bolshie and it does risk burning a lot of the goodwill but goodwill hasn’t got Tassie anywhere.”

Broadcaster Gerard Whateley looks on during an official weigh-in at Crown Riverwalk in Melbourne. (AAP Image/Scott Barbour)

Mr Gutwein reiterated his comments on Tuesday and said he would be talking to AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan this week.

“If there is to be an opportunity for a team in Tasmania, now is the perfect time for the AFL as it looks to what its future might be and how it actually rebuilds its business,” Mr Gutwein said.

Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame icon and veteran commentator Tim Lane said with the AFL borrowing $600 million to survive and only six clubs financially able to make it through the crisis unassisted, the state could be an attractive option.

“If that were so, who could argue after all the years of exclusion? Particularly given that the economic card has so consistently played against the state,” Lane said.

“If, and how, entry to the competition might be achieved remains unclear. What I am certain about, though, is that any Tasmanian team that enters the AFL must be precisely and unreservedly that: ‘Tasmania’.”

Whateley said Tasmania had compiled its most comprehensive campaign and had been assured of a fair hearing prior to the crisis.

“I feel for Tassie on that front,” he said.

“Through matters beyond their control and the AFL’s control it is no longer a possibility.

“I think the level of frustration probably prompted what happened.

“There is not going to be a 19th team and I suspect all those who have invested so much into it know so the only other way is to barge down the door and cull one of the clubs in this financially desperate climate.”