LEARNING THE LESSONS OF EXPANSION

Ashley Browne

Following last week’s momentous decision to award Tasmania the 19th AFL licence, talk among the locals has changed from “what if” to “what’s next”.

Right now, all that exists of the Tasmanian AFL team is a signed contract between the state government and the AFL.

But things will start to flesh out quickly as a board of directors and an interim senior management team is put in place.

Over the next few years, key decisions will be made and each time the ripple of excitement will feel stronger as the men’s team’s 2028 debut season draws nearer.

But before they get the whiteboard out in Hobart it is worth revisiting AFL expansion before now.

The old 12-team VFL expanded to 14 teams in 1987 when West Coast and the Brisbane Bears entered the competition, became 15 when Adelaide was admitted to what is now the AFL in 1991, 16 in 1995 when Fremantle came along and remained at that number in 1997 when Port

Adelaide came in to replace Fitzroy, which merged with the Bears to become the Lions.

Gold Coast made it a 17-team competition in 2011 and the inclusion of the GWS Giants 12 months later completed the AFL’s expansion. Until now.

So as Tasmania starts to take shape, it is timely to look at what the expansion clubs did right and what they might have wished they could revisit in their first few years in the AFL.

There are a few lessons on how to start an AFL team from scratch.

Note: For the purpose of this story, we are counting Sydney as a relocated club even though the Swans encountered all sorts of difficulties once they moved from South Melbourne to become the League’s first non-Victorian team in 1982.

The Coach

u The longest-serving expansion club coaches were Guy McKenna, Gerard Neesham and Graham Cornes, who each held their held their jobs for four full seasons.

McKenna was a first-time coach who might have led the Suns to the finals in 2014 if superstar Gary Ablett hadn’t busted his shoulder in round 16, but he was sacked at the end of the season.

Neesham and Cornes were considered the best coaches at state league level when they landed their AFL gigs.

Neesham got the Dockers to within half a game of the finals in 1997, but seven wins and 15th place the next year led to his axing.

Cornes took the Crows to the finals in 1993 and they led Essendon by six goals at half-time of the preliminary final, before the team, basically, choked and he was out of a job 12 months later.

Ron Alexander was replaced as the inaugural coach of West Coast after just one season, while veterans John Cahill and Kevin Sheedy lasted two seasons each at Port Adelaide and GWS respectively.

In the case of Cahill, an icon of the Port Magpies who coached Collingwood for two years in the 1980s, he was always just warming the seat for Mark Williams until the club felt he was ready, and once he took over, the Power became perennial finalists and won the flag in 2004.

Peter Knights lasted 59 games as coach of the Brisbane Bears, but with so much off-field instability, a difficult list build and substandard facilities, it was a tough environment for a first-time coach.

The Lesson

u First-time coaches need not apply. The AFL wants Tassie to be instantly competitive, so will target off-field leaders with experience and preferably several premierships to their name. The timing could well suit the likes of Chris Scott, John Longmire, Alastair Clarkson or Damien Hardwick.

First-time coaches need not apply

The List

u The Eagles and Crows reaped the benefits of being the first AFL clubs in their respective footy-mad states, so their inaugural squads were effectively West Australian and South Australian state squads, supplemented by a few experienced heads who wanted to return home.

In the case of the Crows, several members of the 1991 squad had resisted previous entreaties to join AFL clubs thanks to a retention fund from the SANFL that made it worth their while to remain at home.

Fremantle’s maiden team featured several of the best local players not already on AFL lists, again boosted by a handful of hardened bodies who chose to come home.

There was a heavy Port Magpies influence on the Power’s list in

The Lesson

their first season, a handful of other SANFL players not yet in the AFL and some returning Port heroes, headlined by 1993 Brownlow medallist Gavin Wanganeen, who was the inaugural skipper.

Brisbane’s first playing squad was laden with players considered surplus to requirements at other clubs, with Brad Hardie and Mark Williams among the few established players who made the move north in that first season.

Gold Coast and the Giants picked the eyes out of successive drafts with a handful of experienced players around them.

Ablett was the headline act at the Suns, but the Giants were a bit more scientific as they grabbed players such as Phil Davis and Callan Ward in the expectation they would soon reach their prime and become exceptional leaders.

And they were right.

u Pretty much throw out whatever happened before – list management today is unrecognisable from even a decade ago. Tasmania needs a bit of everything and will get it.

There will be some high draft picks over three years, a core of players in their mid-20s with between 70 and 120 games experience and a few older heads looking to finish their career on a high who will be traded in and arrive via free agency.

Tasmanian players will be sought and their path to the new club made reasonably straight forward. Every endeavour will be made for Tasmania to be capable of playing finals from year one.

The People

u By any reasonable assessment, the AFL erred in staffing the start-up Suns with too many first-timers. The coach (McKenna), chief executive (Travis Auld) and chairman (John Witheriff) were learning on the job.

The Giants had the heavyweight coaching team of Sheedy and Mark Williams, the wily Graeme ‘Gubby’ Allan heading up the football department and a rising star of the AFL, game development general manager David Matthews as the chief executive. The highly-regarded Craig Lambert was poached from the Brisbane Lions to head up player welfare.

Little wonder they made a preliminary final in their fourth year and a Grand Final in their eighth.

Earlier expansion teams had a sprinkling of veteran football people. Shane O’Sullivan was the footy boss at the Bears. Neil Kerley the same at the Crows. The respected Brian Cunningham was the first chief executive at Port Adelaide.

The Lesson

u Just as the first coach of Tasmania is likely to be a heavyweight of the caper, expect all the key off-field positions at the club to be filled by similarly capable people. Brendon Gale will be the No. 1 target, if not as the club’s chief executive then as the senior AFL executive with oversight for Tasmania.

Former state Premier Peter Gutwein, who willed this team into existence, has been touted as either the inaugural chairman or chief executive.

Passionate Tasmanians including Jack Riewoldt, Alastair Lynch and Chris Fagan are every chance to be involved in some capacity.

Expect a sprinkling of Tasmanians, but the AFL won’t hesitate to parachute as many capable and well-paid mainlanders to flesh out all the key roles as required.

The Facility

u Such was the haste with which previous AFL expansion teams entered the competition, their training and administration facilities were either cramped, temporary or shared with pre-existing state league clubs. In some cases, all three. Again, the Suns might have copped the raw deal. They played in a new stadium but their football operations ran out of portable offices and their gym was inside a metal shed. Not until the 2018 Commonwealth Games was the infrastructure built to house the entire club under one roof. Eventually all the expansion clubs became housed in world-class facilities, but they took time to rise from the ground.

The Lesson

u If Tasmania wants to be a destination club from the get-go, it needs to be housed in a facility that lacks for nothing. With several years before the team arrives, there is ample time to source the location, design and build it. Just make sure the coffee is decent.

The Home Ground

u Apart from the Bears, whose home ground at Carrara (where Heritage Bank Stadium now sits) consisted of a series of prefabricated grandstands and grassy hills, all the expansion clubs played their home games at spacious modern football grounds.

The Eagles and Dockers had Subiaco Oval, then the home of footy in WA. Port joined Adelaide at the custom-built Football Park. Heritage Bank Stadium replaced the old Carrara for the Suns, while the old Sydney Showgrounds was repurposed for the Giants.

The Lesson

u Tasmania will get a shiny new stadium at Macquarie Point, if not by 2028, then certainly the following year with the AFL keen to replicate the same match-day experience as Adelaide Oval, Optus Stadium and the MCG. And Launceston’s UTAS Stadium, which will host four games and potentially an away match as well, will be expanded and given a gleaming makeover. It already has arguably the best playing surface in the AFL.