Some years in the making, the day has arrived that the AFL announces its expansion into Tasmania.
We’re now just awaiting official confirmation from Gillon McLachlan, with the outgoing league boss suggesting as much in a brief statement on Tuesday night that simply read: “See you in Tassie tomorrow.”
After the federal government over the weekend confirmed it’d fund $240 million for a new stadium in Hobart, all 18 clubs on Tuesday morning reportedly ticked off the call before the AFL Commission gave it the green light.
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The financial elements and overall hard work of getting it off ground and turning Tassie’s AFL bid from a pipe dream into a reality has been achieved, with the 19th team expected to join the competition in either 2027 or 2028.
And for a team in the Apple Isle to hit the ground running, it’ll need strong leaders in all areas and the most qualified people to build a good culture, and more broadly, an authentic football club.
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And what better figures to have in key roles than Geelong coach Chris Scott and Brisbane boss Chris Fagan?
Speaking on Fox Footy’s AFL 360 on Tuesday night, co-host Gerard Whateley and Mark Robinson gave their pitches to Scott and Fagan to lead Tasmania as senior coach and general manager of football respectively.
“If Chris Fagan and Chris Scott had been at this desk together last night, I would’ve finished with this,” Whateley began.
“‘Chris Fagan, I think your mission at the Brisbane Lions will have run its course. You’ll have won your premierships and I think 2027 you’ll go back, live the dream and be the GM of footy for the Tasmanian Devils’.”
Of course, Fagan worked at Hawthorn as its footy boss alongside Alastair Clarkson during the club’s golden era where it won four flags from 2008 to 2015 prior to his move to the Lions.
Robinson followed with his recruiting pitch to two-time premiership coach Scott.
“I’d look at Chris Scott and say: ‘Chris your time is coming to an end in Geelong. Get out, do a couple of years in the media and you can be the first coach of the Tasmanian Devils’,” he said.
“Later in life, which Chris would be, the ultimate challenge (would be) to go to a new club and be that first person to help set up – not just him – the Fagan-Scott partnership… the AFL would love that.”
Fagan, a proud Tasmanian who’s in the Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame, last week put his hand up for a role for the expansion team if he’s no longer coaching the Lions when it joins the competition, saying “you never know what the future holds” but that he was “totally committed” to Brisbane.
As Whateley alluded to, Fagan and Scott had appeared on AFL 360 on Monday night — Fagan via a virtual cross from Brisbane.
The Lions coach told AFL 360 he believes the state’s latest attempt to get an AFL license was “clearly the best one we’ve seen” in a passionate endorsement of its ratification.
“It was really well organised and well thought through and there was some great people working on it behind the scenes,” he said on Fox Footy. “I was hopeful and I’m really excited for the state that it is going to happen, it’s a great thing.
“I know people who don’t come from Tasmania may not necessarily under my emotions around that, but I played all my football down there and I had some terrific coaches down there.
“Footy was really strong in Tasmania back in my playing days and I’ve watched in recent years it fade away to be a bit of a shadow of its former self.
“I just think the addition of an AFL team in Tasmania will be great for all the young kids there, AFL footy right there on their doorstep — it should lead to more participation and enthusiasm around the sport.
“I also think it’s great for the economy and it’ll be great for the CBD down there to have a stadium so close to the city. And it’ll create a lot of jobs.
“I can’t see too many downsides, I know there’ll be some detractors, but I’m not one of those people. I’m, extremely excited by the fact we’ve now got a team down there and I look forward to the day they actually run out on the field and play their first game.”
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Fagan is contracted at the Lions until the end of the 2025 season.
Meanwhile, Scott, who’s deal with Geelong expires at the conclusion of the 2024 campaign, said he thinks the league will learn from past errors with other expansion sides.
“I think the AFL will learn a lot and iterate what happened on the back of what happened at the Gold Coast and GWS. It’s impossible to set up new teams without making mistakes,” he said.
“There’s too much in my opinion spoken about where these places are … if the footy team is set up well enough and structured well enough and has a level of success early enough and some identity, it could be virtually anywhere.
“Get the team right and club right first and the rest will flow from there.”
The Cats boss said he believes Tasmania would need to experienced players when it first forms its list.
“They need some experience. I think the whole competition has learned this idea that: ‘We’ll just get a heap of young talent in and wait 10 years to be successful’,” Scott said.
“Look, it may well work, but it’s a huge risk to wait a decade to see if your gamble has paid off.”
