{"id":553460,"date":"2026-03-20T19:40:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T19:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/553460\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T19:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T19:40:14","slug":"the-feud-between-the-tasmania-devils-and-the-hawthorn-hawks-has-become-a-festering-sore-why-wont-the-afl-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/553460\/","title":{"rendered":"The feud between the Tasmania Devils and the Hawthorn Hawks has become a \u2018festering sore\u2019. Why won\u2019t the AFL act?"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 21, 2026 \u2014 5:30am<\/p>\n

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Now that the gloves are off between Hawthorn and the Devils in the battle for the hearts and minds of Tasmania\u2019s north, it is worth noting the strange and ongoing silence from the AFL on what has become a festering sore for the game\u2019s 19th club.<\/p>\n

Just months after the Devils resolved one polarising and damaging controversy over their new Hobart home ground at Macquarie Point<\/a>, the new club faces another dispute. Tasmania CEO Brendon Gale on Tuesday doubled down on his assertion to this masthead 12 months ago<\/a> that Hawthorn should leave the state at the end of next season.<\/p>\n

For Gale to provoke the debate this week was untimely, but it\u2019s a debate the game\u2019s bosses should have resolved for his club well before now. The AFL\u2019s inaction now sees Gale\u2019s Devils in danger of looking like the bad guys when they have worked so hard to unify the state.<\/p>\n

Quite simply the Tasmanian team that makes its VFL debut in Hobart on Saturday wants Hawthorn out of the state after 2027 in line with the business case approved by the 18 clubs in 2024. Hawthorn, who win 80 per cent of their Launceston games and will reap more than $9 million from the state government in their current two-year deal, want to stay and share UTAS Stadium to the tune of two to four games a year.<\/p>\n

That head office has failed to take a position in a debate that has confused Tasmanian football supporters and divided the very market it vowed to unite underlines the lack of decisive leadership which has too often punctuated Dillon\u2019s time in the job. Unless it points to something \u2013 from the Devils\u2019 position \u2013 far more alarming, that the AFL is actually entertaining a two-team model.<\/p>\n

Hawthorn boss Ashley Klein this week confirmed that the AFL was undergoing business modelling for a two-team market in Launceston from 2028, the Devils\u2019 debut season in which they will play the majority of their games at UTAS. This is despite the business case approved by the clubs and the commission, and the strong stand taken by the Tasmanian board that, for the club to be strong and sustainable, it needed the entire state behind it. This assertion has dismayed and surprised the Devils, and is even more confronting given the Macquarie Point Stadium won\u2019t be ready until at least 2031.<\/p>\n

Dillon was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n

Klein told this masthead: \u201cOur understanding is the AFL is doing an analysis on what our proposition would look like if Hawthorn were to stay. On what it would look like for Hawthorn, for the Devils, and for football in the state and for tourism.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur wish and want after 25 years out of our 100-year history is to continue to play football in Tasmania. Everything we\u2019ve done in terms of the community, grassroots football and our branding shows how connected we are. We wouldn\u2019t get in the way of the Devils, we would leave the community and grassroots partnerships to the new team. We see it as more of a tourism partnership going forward but if Hawthorn was to stay in Tasmania we think it would be better for the game and better for the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can appreciate that they [the Devils] have got a different view, and if I was Brendon [Gale] I\u2019d be going down the same path. But there\u2019s no other state in Australia that has the entire home game market to itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BrendonBrendon Gale with a Tassie Devil.AAP<\/p>\n

Klein\u2019s comments are at odds with last week\u2019s lengthy meeting in Hobart between Tasmania chairman Grant O\u2019Brien and his board, and new AFL Commission chairman Craig Drummond and Dillon\u2019s No. 2, Tom Harley. There the Devils\u2019 bosses reiterated their desire for the AFL to finally take a stand and clarify that Hawthorn\u2019s current agreement with Tasmania will be their last.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien said the suggestion the AFL was investigating the prospect of a two-team model in Tasmania was news to him. He likened that scenario to that of Geelong sharing GMHBA Stadium.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Maurice<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking to this masthead from North Hobart Oval on the eve of the sold-out VFL clash with Coburg, O\u2019Brien said: \u201cI think it\u2019s come to a point where Hawthorn don\u2019t want to leave but the prospect of a two-team state in terms of our population is like proposing two teams playing out of Geelong. I\u2019m sure Geelong would not be happy about that and it doesn\u2019t make sense to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe proposal for the 19th licence never had any suggestion of two teams, and it was made very clear in the taskforce report. If there\u2019s any doubt about that it\u2019s up to the AFL to clarify it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHawthorn has been great for the state and Hawthorn has taken great benefit from the state. But it\u2019s a bit hard from a unifying perspective to see a team playing out of Hobart and two teams playing out of Launceston. Hawthorn, in fairness to them, have a government sponsorship, but the agreement was that from 2028 the Tasmania Football Club would have clean air.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is true the new club has work to do in Launceston and the lack of clarity over Hawthorn\u2019s future is not helping. The Hawks will relinquish their Tasmanian logo on their guernseys in 2027 but have now reached a new and separate two-year sponsorship agreement with the Launceston City Council.<\/p>\n

For years, the AFL privately blamed divisions across the state for the game\u2019s failure to support a Tasmanian team and now the Hawks are continuing to muddy the waters, thanks to the AFL\u2019s inaction.<\/p>\n

The Devils last month signed one of the game\u2019s most lucrative long-term sponsorships \u2013 a seven-year partnership with the home-grown Blundstone worth an estimated $24 million \u2013 but financial support from the north nowhere near matches that south of the state.<\/p>\n

\"HawksHawks players celebrate with selfies in Launceston.AFL Photos<\/p>\n

Hawthorn boast 8000 Tasmanian memberships. As head office well knows, Tasmanian football supporters all barrack for another AFL club and surely by failing to take a position on Hawthorn\u2019s future it\u2019s only hurting the Devils\u2019 progress. Ditto the state government, which has pledged $12 million a year to the Devils for 12 years.<\/p>\n

Hawthorn point to the fact that the Tasmanian government \u2013 in fact both major parties \u2013 supported a two-team model in Launceston in the lead-up to last year\u2019s election. But neither side wanted to risk losing Hawthorn votes. And Hawthorn\u2019s future is not up to the government; it is up to the AFL, which dictates the home-and-away season fixture.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Jack<\/a><\/p>\n

So Drummond and Dillon need to take a position. Similarly, O\u2019Brien and Gale don\u2019t want to be seen as the new club that kicked Hawthorn out of the state. Not only would that prove bad for business and bad for the Devils\u2019 image, but it\u2019s a notion as unfair as it is inaccurate.<\/p>\n

The proposal for a 19th AFL licence is controlled by the AFL. All its planning was underpinned by a one-team model in a state with a population of about 580,000. The game\u2019s head office might have a new chairman but the slowness to act should not be blamed upon a change of leadership. The definitive call for Hawthorn to exit Tasmania should have been made in 2025. And any business analysis being undertaken by the AFL on behalf of the Hawks where Tasmania is concerned should be focusing upon a farewell tour and a bigger future at the MCG.<\/p>\n

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\"CarolineCaroline Wilson<\/a> is a Walkley award-winning columnist and former chief football writer for The Age.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 21, 2026 \u2014 5:30am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-553460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}