Well, a couple of weeks ago I joined 150,000+ others and became a Foundation Member of the Tasmania Devils footy club. In 2023, after decades of bewildering decisions and mystifying priorities, administrators of the Australian Football League finally granted a licence to a team from Tasmania.
To adequately represent its history, and to support its future, any national league of Australian football needed to include at least one team from Tasmania. You could have knocked me down with a feather when the AFL granted the licence.
Many questions remain. Not least around the Very Separate identities of north-western, northern and southern Tasmanian footy. But, happily for now, I’m a member of the Tasmania Devils.
Why? Tasmanian footy has a rich, rich history. I love everything I come across.
How about the chaotic finish to the 1967 Tasmania state final? The Tasmania state final to determine the best team in Tasmania was played 50-odd times. It started as an unofficial North versus South match in 1904. As a mainlander, it’s not really for me to describe the animosity or strength of feeling between northerners and southerners.
Last week I read in Richard Flanagan’s (outstanding) Question 7 that people of Launceston (aka Lonnie) and the north would carry a Victorian sensibility – as if they were part of Victoria – rather than be associated with Hobart and the south.
As a uni student on field trip around Tassie, I was schooled in the critical importance of knowing which beer to ask for at the local: northern Tassie beer (James Boag) or southern Tassie beer (Cascade). And, for the sake of all that is good in the world, not to get that wrong.
I remember once catching a taxi from the airport into Hobart Town with a driver – old enough to have adult kids – who had only just moved to Hobart himself in the previous days.
“Oh, where did you move from?”
“Lonnie, mate.”
As he drove us over rolling hills, reflected sunshine winked at us off the Derwent estuary and the towering form of kunanyi (Mt Wellington) loomed around every corner of my imagination – an imagination that never did justice to seeing the real thing.
“Ahh, that’s a big move.”
I wasn’t taking the piss. I thought I understood what a massive cultural move that must have been.
“Mate,” he said, “I hate it. I dead-set hate Hobart. I’ve been here two days in my whole life. They were yesterday and today.”
“Jeez,” I said. “Why did you move down here?”
“My wife. Her business.”
He glowered out the windscreen.
“Do you think I could find a Boags on tap last night?” he continued. He wasn’t happy. “This has been a big mistake. If she thinks I’m gonna cave and drink Cascade she’s in for a rude shock.”
***
Back to that 1904 idea for a Tasmania state footy final – from 1909, it gained official status in the Tasmanian football calendar. It was played between the reigning premiers of the Tasmanian Football League (based in Hobart) and the Northern Tasmanian Football Association (based in Launceston (Lonnie!)). In 1950, the reigning premiers of the North Western Football Union (from around Burnie) also joined – NWFU premiers played off against the NTFA premiers with the winner taking on the TFL premiers.
***
So it’s the the Tassie State final 1967. Wynyard versus North Hobart – at the Burnie Oval. North West country – strong support for Wynyard.
Wynyard is coached by John Coghlan who also plays full forward. He’d emigrated from the mainland where he’d played with Oakleigh in the Victorian Football Association. He runs the milk bar on Wynyard’s main street. Wynyard wins the 1967 NWFU flag, beating Cooee in the Grand Final. It is their second premiership. Coghlan a hero.
Meanwhile, after finishing last in the 1966 TFL season, North Hobart recruits Geelong great John Devine as their captain-coach for 1967. They win 9 of their last 11 games to finish fourth, and then win finals against New Norfolk, Clarence and Glenorchy to win their 21st TFL flag. Devine a hero.
State Final 1967. The following was written by Shane Johnson who attended the game, aged 13, with his family, to support his Wynyard Cats. The full story appears in the classic book Footy Town (edited by John Harms and Paul Daffey):
“We’re in front by a point. The siren must go soon…
Templar concedes a free to Devine.
Scores of kids are sitting on the fence directly in front of the timekeeper’s box. The siren has never been particularly strong.
Devine goes back for his kick. He gets under it.
I am distracted to my right. I hear the siren sound. Kids start to stream onto the ground.
Dickie Collins from North marks about thirty yards out, just as I am running on to the ground to celebrate the mighty Cats’ win.
But it becomes clear that (umpire) Pilgrim hasn’t heard the siren and has rightly paid the mark because we all know that the game ain’t over until he blows his whistle and raises his arms in the air to signify the end of hostilities.
Soon, there is a big crowd on the ground.
Devine tells Dickie not to take his kick until an area has been cleared.
Confusion reigns!
The umpires and coppers manage to clear a path for Dickie to have his shot at goal. He is set to take his shot when Pilgrim says he’s not on the right line and he won’t allow it. He pushes Dickie around. The crowd closes in some more.
And then it happens!
First, one of the goal posts starts to shake and wobble. The posts are aluminium sleeves in socket housings. Down she comes. It is very funny. I can’t believe my eyes!
I don’t see who pulls the first post down but it’s strongly rumoured that Ulverstone coach Casey Lawrence, the brother of the great Tasmanian and St Kilda player Barry Lawrence, is heavily involved. Also at the scene is Ray Walker, the Footscray 73-gamer who is captain-coach of Burnie. Another in the vicinity is Cooee star Harold ‘Tiger’ Dowling, the doyen of cycling commentators along the Coast.
By this stage there are about 3000 on the playing surface.
Superintendent Mackey is the local boss-copper. He is off duty and in civvies. Even so, he attempts to take control of the situation, assisting his uniformed colleagues, before walking into a stiffener from a local identity who doesn’t want to miss an opportunity amid the confusion to get square with the Super.
Soon enough the second goalpost vibrates and descends and then of course the behind posts come down as well. Poor old Dickie is left with nothing to shoot at. He is last seen leaving the ground with the Ross Faulkner tucked up his long sleeve jumper (still got it on the mantlepiece, apparently!) about the same time as Phil ‘Stotty’ Stott is seen scarpering from the ground with a goalpost tucked under his wing.
Stotty heads for safe land in front of the grandstand only to be confronted by my Mum, who says: “You shouldn’t have done that.”
How’s that for crowd engagement.
The game was declared as having ‘no result’.
It was wonderful hearing John Harms interview four-time Carlton premiership player, captain and coach, Percy Jones at the North Fitzroy Arms years ago, and hearing JTH ask about that game. Percy played that day for North Hobart as a 20-year-old ruckman. The team travelled from Hobart by train.
***
Here is a Tassie footy piece I had published here at The Footy Almanac in 2014. When I wrote this (10 years ago!), the name North Hobart Football Club, which had been a foundation club in Hobart football, had ceased to exist. It puzzled me so I went for a walk while in Hobart to see what I could see.
Finding North Hobart Football Club in disguise: Never say die
https://www.footyalmanac.com.au/finding-north-hobart-football-club-in-disguise-never-say-die/
Have a fun week.
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About David Wilson
David Wilson is a hydrologist, climate reporter and writer of fiction & observational stories. He writes under the name “E.regnans” at The Footy Almanac and has stories in several books. One of his stories was judged as a finalist in the Tasmanian Writers’ Prize 2021. He shares the care of two daughters and likes to walk around feeling generally amazed. Favourite tree: Eucalyptus regnans.
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Me too Dave. Mainly because of my recollection of these articles that I read at the time. If the Jack Jumpers can do it . . . .
I want to see Tasmania do well when they start playing in the AFL because they were a very good hunting ground back in the day for St Kilda with players like Daryl Baldock, Ian Stewart, Verdun Howell, Barry Lawrence (who was mentioned in this article) and John Bonney.
However, I really hope Tasmania do not win a premiership before St Kilda hopefully win their 2nd flag, as like many other St Kilda supporters, I have waited 58 years since our last flag, not to mention a 69 year wait for our 1st flag.
At the moment, GWS is my second team, as I have always admired their talent, but Tasmania could well end up as my second team, assuming they end up with similar talent. In fact after St Kilda, I have always favoured all the interstate teams over the other Victorian teams because growing up, St Kilda supporters copped plenty from opposition supporters when there were only 12 Victorian teams in the then VFL. Also if an interstate team or even Geelong wins a flag opposed to another Victorian team, there is less to be jealous about when you walk in the streets of Melbourne after an AFL Grand Final.
From a purely selfish point of view, I wonder where the Devils will leave North Melbourne, and the four games which they sell to Hobart every year. My wife and I spend at least one weekend per year in Hobart, taking in a North game.
My feeling is that the success of the JackJumpers will really assist / has assisted the Devils.
Brilliant stuff, e.r.
Note, I have a very well-placed source who may or may not be on the board of the Devils. He says that they expected to sign 60-70,000 initially. The numbers have exceeded even their wildest dreams.
OBP good stuff – feel strongly tho that just like GC and GWS it should be a relocated – Vic side ridiculous that we are going to end up with at least -20 sides with – 9 in Vic in reality it’s still a extended vfl competition
I agree strongly with Rulebook. A Victorian side (preferably St Kilda for obvious reasons) should be relocated to Tassie. There are way too many sides located in Victoria. Another of them should be relocated to Northern Territory. Twenty sides in the AFL is plainly ridiculous.
Thanks for reading & for your comments, all.
A Tasmanian team should be included in the AFL – I think we all agree there.
And yes, many questions remain.
How do you slice and dice the dollars?
How do you create the illusion of fairness in what is an inherently unfair world?
It would be great to be involved in those conversations.
But at the Big Picture level, I’m very happy Tasmania will have a team in the Australian Football League.
==
I was reminded on this story from 2014 about the first rules for footy in Hobart. The Tasmanian Football Association was formed in 1879 – and as part of the formation, they needed to establish an agreed set of rules.
https://www.footyalmanac.com.au/hobart-footy-late-1800s/
(comment copied and pasted from Facebook with Cuan’s permission)
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Nice article Dave. Unfortunately unless the AFL cave in and let the team be based out of York Park the team isn’t going to happen. For dozens of valid reasons I just can’t see a stadium ever being built at Macquarie Point. You might be interested in an article I wrote on just one aspect of this debacle.
https://tasmaniantimes.com/2023/10/new-stadiums-are-not-an-economic-boon-analysts-concur/
Keep dreaming Fisho! There’s no way known St Kilda will be relocated to Tasmania. What a ridiculous suggestion that is! St Kilda supporters are extremely happy to watch their team play in Melbourne only! They currently have 55,000 members and have a growing supporter base in the Southern Eastern suburbs in Melbourne. RSEA Park in Moorabbin has been renovated magnificently. They would absolutely hate the idea of being relocated to Tasmania. I have no idea what your obvious reasons are. South Melbourne is the only team in history that was relocated to Sydney back in 1982. North Melbourne refused to be relocated to the Gold Coast.
I only agree with you that 20 sides in the AFL is ridiculous. It doesn’t mean that relocation should happen to any Victorian team.