Paul Gough and Angus Morgan
Tasmania plans to pinch the AFL's proposed 18th license out of the hands of western Sydney under a bold bid announced by the state's Premier Paul Lennon on Wednesday.
Lennon met with AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou on Wednesday to inform him that the Tasmanian Government would soon submit a detailed bid to have its own team in the competition.
While Demetriou told Lennon during the meeting the AFL's immediate priorities were still the establishment of new clubs on the Gold Coast and in western Sydney - with the Gold Coast team tipped to join the competition in 2011 and the second Sydney team possibly the year after - he did not rule out the possibility of Tasmania one day eventually having its own team.
"We reiterated that our key priorities and the two markets that we've identified as priorities going forward are south-east Queensland and western Sydney," Demetriou said.
"(But) I've never used the words 'never' (in relation to a Tasmanian team)."
"All I've said was that our key priority going forward is that we believe the Gold Coast and western Sydney provide us with great opportunities to grow our game, to give us a national footprint and that's what we're focusing on going forward."
However Lennon was scathing of the AFL's bid in particular to establish a team in western Sydney and believes it would make far more sense for the 18th license to go to Tasmania.
"From what I understand the AFL is far more advanced with plans for their Gold Coast team than western Sydney so there is an excellent opportunity there for us," he said.
"We believe it is a big ask for the AFL to establish a team in western Sydney, which is a bread-and-butter area for rugby league."
"Wouldn't it be better to put a team in a state which is a bread-and-butter area for the AFL?"
"What is the point of ignoring your home base?"
But what Lennon did not say is why it has taken Tasmania so long to submit a formal bid to join the competition and why it has decided to now - just months after the AFL announced its plans to set up new teams in western Sydney and on the Gold Coast.
Lennon said football in Tasmania - which only hosts four AFL games a year thanks to its lucrative deal with Hawthorn - was in decline because of the state's constant exclusion from the national competition.
"If the AFL doesn't put a team in Tasmania it risks other (football) codes taking over, principally soccer," he said, warning the league could not take for granted that Tasmania would always remain an AFL state.
Lennon said that Tasmania not only already had a suitable stadium to host games - Launceston's Aurora Stadium which is widely regarded as having the best surface in Australia - but contrary to popular opinion also had a sufficient population base.
He said Tasmania's population of 500,000 was more than enough to support a team considering last year's two grand finalists - Geelong and Port Adelaide - draw from their support from much smaller population bases given Adelaide enjoys the bulk of support in South Australia.
Demetriou denied the AFL was neglecting Tasmania.
"Football is moving forward in Tasmania but does that translate into a new licence?"
"Not at this stage because our view is that the two key priority markets for