Alastair Clarkson is adamant a new Tasmanian team can replicate the success of Geelong in luring players to a unique setting and get a “competitive advantage” over other clubs as the green light for a 19th AFL team looks closer than ever.
The North Melbourne coach has been an ardent supporter of the push for a Tasmanian team and even formed part of the taskforce that put together a feasibility study on the economic worth of a new stadium in Hobart.
A $240M funding commitment from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, seen as the most crucial element in getting the stadium built and the AFL team locked in, could come as soon as this weekend.
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Clarkson said his work on the taskforce helped him take a close look at similar projects around the world and he couldn’t be more sure that “something special” could be done with a Tasmanian team.
“We’ve seen what it’s done for Adelaide and what it’s done for Perth by building Optus. They’ve done it in San Francisco, they’ve done it in Green Bay … they’ve done it right around the world,” he said.
“Stadiums becoming not just a sporting precinct but an economic precinct with 24/7 activity not just game day but concert activity, universities, shopping centres, the economic benefit that will provide for Tassie if they do it the right way, and particularly with such significant government support that they’ve got where the state government is more or less their major sponsor, I mean, wow, there’s not a club in the competition that’s got that.
“It’s just extraordinary. They could do something really special.”
Beyond talking economic benefit, Clarkson said the positive impact on Tasmanian football could be profound if they did things “the right way”.
While Hawthorn captain James Sicily flippantly said he “couldn’t see myself living there” in reference to a potential fight for players, comments he apologised for, Clarkson said the Geelong model showed the opposite.
He said not only could the lure of something different help get players south, but the opportunity to build from within, and give everyone born in Tasmania the opportunity to play for their state, could be telling.
“I just look at the Geelong footy club and the significant strategic advantage they’ve got by offering something different. They are an AFL professional team playing in a rural community. There’s something special about that,” Clarkson said.
“You say that’s not going to be too attractive for people, they just want the bright lights. Jeremy Cameron didn’t want the bright lights and neither did Patty Dangerfield, so it all depends on the individual and what they want.
“And if they set their club up in the right way down there, I don’t see it as an impediment. I actually see it as a competitive advantage that they’ve got. They haven’t got it over Geelong, but they’ve got it over 17 other clubs in the competition.”
Clarkson said the AFL would learn lessons from the introduction of the Gold Coast Suns and GWS about the best way for a new team to build its list.
But he said going back to the future could be the best way, and putting a focus on development in their own area, like the old days of zones when Clarkson was recruited to North Melbourne, could be a strength for the new team.
“I came from a little country town in western Victoria called Kaniva and when that was in Essendon’s zone, there was a reason for a club to go up there and nurture that zone. There was four players that came out of Kaniva in a 10-year period,” he said.
“Myself, Johnny Barnes, Glen Hawker and Roger Merrett. And not just playing one game of footy … Roger Merrett played over 300 games.
“But since they had the draft rather than zones and a club couldn’t get in there to grow the area and get benefit out of growing that area, zero players in 35 years.
“If we can put a flag on the on the hill to give all these Tasmania kids an opportunity and the Tassie side knows that if we invest in these kids, they’re going to get an opportunity to play for this state in the AFL, you just wait to see what this could do for them.
“There’s kids down there … northern Tasmania, it’s been a hotbed of players. It’s extraordinary. The Gale brothers and the Febey brothers and the Richardsons, so many great players just out of Tasmania.
“Now they’ve got this opportunity to get all those picks, I’m sure part of the deal with setting up that club will be that if you’re born in Tasmania you get they’ll get first dibs on every Tasmanian player.
“They have got to grow their product from within. They’ll go and poach and get talent, there’ll be a little bit of that.
“But by and large if they set it up early enough, and get their academy going as soon as it’s announced, and nurture the talent, ideally that’s where they want their talent to come from.”
Meanwhile proud Tasmanian Chris Fagan has put his hand up for a role with an Apple Isle AFL club.
While 61-year-old Fagan’s priority is coaching the Brisbane Lions, he would love to be involved with an AFL club based in his home state.
“I saw all reports (about the likelihood of a Tasmanian AFL team) and it brought a smile to my face,” Fagan said on Thursday.
“It’s been long overdue, I think. It’s going to take a bit of work, and you probably won’t see a team until the stadium is built.
“It’ll take a while to build it, so probably it’ll be 2028 before you see a Tasmanian team, but that’ll give a really good amount of time to set it up in the right way.
“I know Hobart pretty well, and I know the (stadium) location they are talking about, and it would be phenomenal if they build that in that spot.
“I’m very happy for the people down there and I’m very happy for all the young footballers down there to have an AFL team hopefully on their doorstep.”
While Fagan said that he would probably be a bit “long in the tooth” to coach a Tasmanian AFL expansion team when it eventually joined the competition, he kept the door open by saying “you never know what the future holds”.
“I love coaching the Lions,” he said.
“If I’m not coaching the Lions by that point in time, and I could, I’d love to help Tassie out in some way, not necessarily to be the coach, it might be doing something else there.
“You never say never, but I’m totally committed to the Lions and that’s where I see my future until they decide I haven’t got one.”
Fagan, who recently signed a deal that will keep him at the Lions until at least the end of the 2025 AFL season, has the immediate goal of guiding Brisbane to a fourth successive win on Saturday at the Gabba against Fremantle.
