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Star approval: Key player rep, Patrick Dangerfield, backs Tasmanian AFL team

A key AFL player rep says a Tasmanian team would only improve the competition. LATEST >>

'If anyone can' make a Tasmanian professional football team work it's the AFL

THE head of the AFL Players Association and one of the game’s biggest names Geelong champion Patrick Dangerfield believes a Tasmanian team would only improve the competition.

Dangerfield, the AFLPA president and 2016 Brownlow Medallist, said harsh lessons learned from the Giants and Suns introduction could see a Tasmanian team hit the ground running.

“I think it would only improve the game, it’s not going to detract from it,” Dangerfield said on the Al and Lingy Podcast.

“I think there’s an opportunity for this Tasmanian team to do it better than the Gold Coast and to do it better than the Giants and that’s what we should hope for as a league that when they do come in, and I think that will happen quite soon, there competitive quickly.”

Geelong’s Patrick Dangerfield. (Photo by Sarah Reed/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
Geelong’s Patrick Dangerfield. (Photo by Sarah Reed/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

He said using the fixture to schedule a Tasmanian team to play consecutive games in Queensland against the Lions and the Suns in the middle of winter could see the team base there for two to three weeks, while players would welcome pre-seasons in summer on the island state.

“Summer throughout Tassie is a brilliant time,” he said.

“So I’m really, really positive on it and I think it will be a great thing for our game.”

brett.stubbs@news.com.au

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Original URL: https://www.themercury.com.au/sport/afl/star-approval-key-player-rep-patrick-dangerfield-backs-tasmanian-afl-team/news-story/ce1bc2da5421d252568599df02ba5f66