Australian Football

Tasmania (VFL)

A precedent for Tasmanian representative sides engaging in competition against mainland club teams was established as long ago as 1974 when a combined squad drawn from the premier clubs of the TFL, NTFA and NWFU was sent to the Australian club championships in Adelaide. On that occasion, owing largely to the hurried nature of the enterprise and the formidable strength of the opposition - Richmond and Glenelg - the team’s performances were ignominious in the extreme, and subsequent forays by Tasmanian sides into various NFL and VFL-organised competitions over the course of the ensuing decade or so were scarcely any more memorable.

Given Tasmania’s indisputable status, along with Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia, as one of Australian football’s four ‘crown jewels’, the club that was formed in 2001 to carry the state banner into the recently re-constituted Victorian Football League competition faced both an enormous challenge and an unenviable responsibility. Unlike the representative teams of the 1970s and 1980s, however, the Tassie Devils at least enjoyed the benefits of careful planning, and although early results were not promising, under the aegis of former Hobart, Fitzroy, North Melbourne and Northern Bombers star Matthew Armstrong, progress was steady. In 2003, the Devils reached the finals for the first time, an achievement that was repeated in both 2004 and 2005. More to the point, perhaps, a genuine club spirit could be seen to be emerging.

At the end of the 2005 season the Devils entered into a restricted alliance agreement with AFL club the Kangaroos. Under the terms of the agreement, a maximum of six Kangaroos players would be eligible to represent Tasmania in the VFL each week. The 2006 season proved to be somewhat disappointing, however, as the Devils managed just 7 wins from 18 games to finish 2 wins behind eighth placed Coburg. This was a prelude to a quite alarming fall from grace in 2007 which saw the Devils plummet to last place with just a couple of victories from their 18 home and away matches. A year later the Devils were similarly poor, and few people were surprised when it was announced that the club would be disbanding.

In some respects Tasmania remains Australian football's forgotten jewel. Given the state's population its contribution to football has been unsurpassed but this appears to carry little or no weight with the game's authorities. Australian football remains the king of sports in Tasmania but if a place at the game's top table continues to be denied it then it is doubtful if this state of affairs will persist much longer.