Tasmanian footy legends and state’s juniors join call to arms to save the code
TASMANIAN footy legends have joined the Mercury’s petition calling for the AFL to step up and help solve the state’s Aussie rules crisis. SIGN OUR PETITION TO SAVE OUR FOOTY
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TASMANIAN footy legends have joined the Mercury’s petition calling for the AFL to step up and help solve the state’s Aussie rules crisis.
Brisbane coach Chris Fagan, former Adelaide and Fitzroy coach Robert Shaw, former Melbourne star forward Brad Green and current Lions player Mitch Robinson have all thrown their support behind the petition.
Download your poster here and use #saveourfooty on social media to spread the word
MORE: TIME TO SAVE TASSIE FOOTY
Local footy legends such as Clarence premiership coaches Brett Geappen and Grant Fagan, Lauderdale coach Darren Winter and former Sandy Bay star Peter Di Venuto are on board, as are the likes of Australian Test wicketkeeper Tim Paine, former Tasmanian premier David Bartlett, Tasmanian Greens Senator Nick McKim and Labor’s No. 1 man in Franklin David O’Byrne.
Shaw, who also coached the Tasmanian State of Origin team to victory over Victoria in 1990, said Tasmanians’ passion for the sport was why the AFL had taken its eye off the ball as it viewed commercial opportunities in expansion areas of the Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney.
“It is a television game to try and get people on the Gold Coast and in Greater Western Sydney to watch the game so they can go to Channel 7 and say, ‘We now have X amount watching our game, we have increased our viewership etc’,” Shaw said.
“We are not in the competition as a result of the rubbish about our economy or our capacity to grow a membership base or have facilities.
“We are not in there because our people watch AFL on television. We are a captive audience.
“Our loyalty to the game and our strength has proven to be our weakness.
“We are taken for granted and then they roll out all the rubbish excuses about economy, membership and isolation. How silly is that? It is so disappointing.”
Shaw was disappointed with former AFL Tasmania CEO Rob Auld’s sudden departure, promoted to Melbourne in the middle of a crisis as Devonport and Burnie withdrew from the State League, and the way he was replaced by Trisha Squires without the job being advertised.
MORE: ROB AULD QUITS AS AFL TAS CHIEF
“The CEO lasting 18 months, clubs going and then to walk into a job and to leave us like that is extremely disappointing, bordering on anger,” he said. “Mate c’mon, why don’t you hang in there and do what you promised you were going to do?
“I’ll throw my support behind Trish, but where was the process?
“This is the AFL for you. Where was the opportunity for people to apply for the role? People see this and think this is the AFL again.
“I’d be quite honest, if there was an application for that job, I would have put my hand up, and I know a lot of other people would have, but we were just blindsided and we don’t get the opportunity.”
MORE: TRISHA SQUIRES THE NEW CHIEF OF AFL TASMANIA
But for young footballers, such as Blake Garrett, 10, it was all about having a pathway through to the big league.
“I love playing with my mates,” Blake said. “But I’d love to [play AFL] if I was good enough.”
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