Latest news with #GrantO'Brien
Sydney Morning Herald
9 hours ago
- Sport
- Sydney Morning Herald
I love Tassie footy and we need a team. But the AFL's stadium ultimatum takes a special kind of arrogance
The question is not whether the introduction of a Tasmanian team to the AFL could have been handled better, but whether it could possibly have been handled worse. The two people I feel sorry for right now are Brendon Gale, the CEO of the newly formed Tasmania Football Club, and Grant O'Brien, its chairman. Both emerged from the Penguin Football Club, a great little Tasmanian footy club that battled the odds and won occasional premierships because they were a formidably tight unit. I believe Brendon and Grant love Tassie footy, as do I. The paradox at the heart of Australian football is that it's a great game by world standards played by a tiny percentage of the world's population. It's also a 19th century game. The art of keeping it alive in the 21st century is a measure of its leaders. Right now, in Tasmania, the organisation demonstrating this art with zest and conviction is the NBL 2023-24 premiers, the Jackjumpers. Head coach Scott Roth crisscrosses the state meeting locals and talking about his game. People are impressed. I hear his stories being retold. You could write a footy TV drama, a black comedy, and title it The Stadium. It would tell the story of a proud little footy state that battles away for well over a century – and, for a period in the 1960s, produces the best and most exciting talent in the country – and then finally gets its chance to play in the big time BUT … a condition is attached. A condition never attached before. The Stadium. Tassie will build, and basically pay for, a new stadium. Along with nearly all the AFL's brainstorms, the idea comes from America. It's a way of divorcing investors from the social costs of sport. The Stadium was also awarded – again, no one seems to know exactly how – the Macquarie Point site. Hobart's renowned beauty has two obvious aspects, the mountain and its colonial waterfront. The Stadium will dwarf the colonial waterfront, sitting behind it like a giant hamburger bun. (And good luck with the glass roof on days when the fierce old Tassie sun, unhindered by the ozone layer, breaks through). The first question my TV drama will ask is – whose idea was this? The AFL, you see, insist it is not theirs. They say it came from the presidents – that is, the 18 AFL presidents who meet on Tuesday to consider whether the Tasmania Football Club's invitation could be withdrawn in light of the ongoing trouble over this idea of theirs which has now precipitated a state election in which the two major parties will support The Stadium and a majority of Tasmanian voters will oppose it.
The Age
9 hours ago
- Sport
- The Age
I love Tassie footy and we need a team. But the AFL's stadium ultimatum takes a special kind of arrogance
The question is not whether the introduction of a Tasmanian team to the AFL could have been handled better, but whether it could possibly have been handled worse. The two people I feel sorry for right now are Brendon Gale, the CEO of the newly formed Tasmania Football Club, and Grant O'Brien, its chairman. Both emerged from the Penguin Football Club, a great little Tasmanian footy club that battled the odds and won occasional premierships because they were a formidably tight unit. I believe Brendon and Grant love Tassie footy, as do I. The paradox at the heart of Australian football is that it's a great game by world standards played by a tiny percentage of the world's population. It's also a 19th century game. The art of keeping it alive in the 21st century is a measure of its leaders. Right now, in Tasmania, the organisation demonstrating this art with zest and conviction is the NBL 2023-24 premiers, the Jackjumpers. Head coach Scott Roth crisscrosses the state meeting locals and talking about his game. People are impressed. I hear his stories being retold. You could write a footy TV drama, a black comedy, and title it The Stadium. It would tell the story of a proud little footy state that battles away for well over a century – and, for a period in the 1960s, produces the best and most exciting talent in the country – and then finally gets its chance to play in the big time BUT … a condition is attached. A condition never attached before. The Stadium. Tassie will build, and basically pay for, a new stadium. Along with nearly all the AFL's brainstorms, the idea comes from America. It's a way of divorcing investors from the social costs of sport. The Stadium was also awarded – again, no one seems to know exactly how – the Macquarie Point site. Hobart's renowned beauty has two obvious aspects, the mountain and its colonial waterfront. The Stadium will dwarf the colonial waterfront, sitting behind it like a giant hamburger bun. (And good luck with the glass roof on days when the fierce old Tassie sun, unhindered by the ozone layer, breaks through). The first question my TV drama will ask is – whose idea was this? The AFL, you see, insist it is not theirs. They say it came from the presidents – that is, the 18 AFL presidents who meet on Tuesday to consider whether the Tasmania Football Club's invitation could be withdrawn in light of the ongoing trouble over this idea of theirs which has now precipitated a state election in which the two major parties will support The Stadium and a majority of Tasmanian voters will oppose it.
