I attended the North Melbourne – Geelong match held at Bellerive Oval recently. I thought I might reflect on my experiences on that day – good, bad or indifferent – and, given the current imbroglio over the proposed stadium at Macquarie Point, discuss a few wider issues.
I need to preface my observations with a full disclosure that I do not support a stadium at Macquarie Point; nor do I believe in today’s fiscal climate taxpayer money should be thrown willy nilly at professional sport.
I am a football devotee and a North Melbourne supporter. I grew up watching players of the ilk of Darrel Baldock and a very strong NWFU competition and a highly competitive intra-state competition. I feel the need to display some credentials as I get sense that some of the more virulent proponents of the Mac Point 1 stadium erroneously believe anyone with a contrary view is ‘anti-football’.
We travelled to the game via ferry and it’s a delightful way to go to the footy watching the magnificent Hobart waterfront disappear in the ferry’s wake and framed in the foothills merging into kunyani. Good views, in particular, of Bellerive Bluff and moored yachts as we docked at Bellerive quay.
We returned to Hobart by bus and this exercise was timely and efficiently handled. So, in terms of the transport to and from the football it was first class. It’s also free! You walk from the ferry for around seven minutes and like all walks to the footy there is a sense of excitement and goodwill emanating from the fans as they make their way up Queen Street in Bellerive en-route to the oval. Not quite akin to the walk from say Flinders Street Station to the MCG but still capable of putting one in a pleasant mindset. The cross-river trip would be even better if there was a jetty outside Bellerive Oval so that voyagers could take in the whole of river facing historic Bellerive Bluff, surely one of Hobart’s nicest residential areas.
I bought tickets from the ticket office at the ground: old habits die slowly with me. (Whilst at the confessional another even older one was jumping the fence at West Park Burnie, de rigueur for kids back in the day!) It was also to avoid the usury of the booking agency which was applying a surcharge of just under $10 per ticket. This purchase went smoothly.
We took a two- and one-half year-old infant for her first footy match. My first disappointment was trying to buy a junior football for her at the North Melbourne merchandise store. The website showed junior footies being part of the North merchandise available for sale but alas they were not brought to Hobart for sale on the day.
It was a big crowd compared to other North matches I have been to at Bellerive and I reckon it was somewhere in the order of 10000. My rough guess was that there were as many if not a tad more Geelong supporters than North supporters. Anyway, the service for food and drink was appalling long queues and long waits. It took me twenty-five minutes to get a coffee – not good enough! The TV screens were turned off so that those of us queuing for coffee couldn’t keep up to date with the progress of the match.
My observations were that most of those employed to dispense food and drink were young people – no doubt to defray costs. Of course, these food and drink outlets at the river end are all at ground level, as are the toilets. People must come downstairs from the grandstands for comfort breaks and food or drink. Now of course this means patrons who descend from the grandstand during match breaks, if are kept in queues so that they, through no fault of their own, must ascend the steps into the grandstand blocking the seated spectators’ uninterrupted view of the match. At football venues in Melbourne each level has its own toilets and food/drink outlets obviating the need for patrons to go to the ground level. Now I must concede the structure of Bellerive Oval is outmoded in this sense and those clamouring for a new stadium on this issue may have a point.
The playing surface was excellent, and it appeared to me North Melbourne went the extra yard to present their team to the public through both electronic and in-person means.
There was a representative of the Yes to Rosny High Performance Centre at the entrance when I arrived, I think handing out literature or fielding questions. I took note later as the bus drove past Eastlands Shopping Centre returning to the CBD at the parklands on the Rosny College side of the road. It’s very steep ground and has a lot of mature trees. It occurs to me that to level and landscape this area is going to cost a huge amount of money. Besides, in my view it’s a pleasant backdrop to drive past as it currently exists.
I did note some patrons displaying what has been promoted as ‘the map’ guernsey. It has been appropriated by the AFL and the pro-stadium people as a kind of badge of honour. From deep in my football memory, I saw this jumper worn by the former greats of Tasmanian football – seeing the rose, primrose and green with the map emblem was for me as a youngster a source of pride. That pride was not diminished when I saw Tasmania beat the Big V at North Hobart in June 1990. Seeing sons of guns play (Atkins, Gale, Hudson) cemented my delight.
For me it is a sacred jumper and I resent seeing it used as a sort of propaganda tool. I believe it is a state of origin jumper worn by native born Tasmanians.
Yes, I can name a couple of people who weren’t born in Tasmania who wore it in the past (Stuart Spencer, Ray Groom) but essentially, it’s a state of origin jumper. I don’t have any objections to the Devils wearing the Tassie colours with a highly stylised map but I do not believe our traditional state jumper should be worn, unless say perhaps on a nostalgia round. Besides its not beyond the realms of possibility that State of Origin Australian rules is revived one day.
I noted a lot of the spectators came from Melbourne and Geelong to watch the match. At this match and other North matches here, I got the sense people enjoyed coming to Tasmania to watch the footy and soak up the good things our state has to offer. How we handle that experience when we get our own team is important. We need to ensure everything works well.
Saturday’s fiasco at food and drink outlets was not a good advertisement for Tasmanian football. We must ensure our service is excellent and we are not gouging visitors (& locals) with exorbitant costs. Football is the people’s sport, and it shouldn’t cost and arm and a leg to attend, particularly for families and those on low incomes. I need to add here that one of the reasons I oppose a stadium at Mac Point is the traffic situation, It is situated where north and east traffic merge . An accident on the bridge, if past experiences are any guide just prior to a match would be a disaster and glib assurances from the people who brought traffic jams to a small city do not assuage me.
I estimate there are more than thirty thousand Tasmanian AFL memberships of mostly Melbourne based clubs. This happened, in part, because of the AFL dropping the ball on Tasmanian football.
In 1990 the AFL became a national competition, having already grafted the former South Melbourne onto Sydney in 1982. Disgracefully Tasmania was left out of calculations in favour of Sydney and Brisbane. 1997 saw the demise of the strong TFL with the winding up of Sandy Bay and Hobart football clubs. A statewide league prospered for a while but collapsed for a multitude of reasons. Seemingly interest in local footy declined. As a result of this hiatus people took more interest in AFL football.
Strong connections since the 1960s had been built with the Richmond and St Kilda football clubs. At one point Richmond had a full-time recruiting officer in Tasmania. Hawthorn gained popularity through Tasmanian goal kicking sensation Peter Hudson playing for Hawthorn for 10 years and them playing games in this state since 2001 in Launceston. The big AFL clubs notably Carlton, Essendon and Collingwood all have considerable fans in Tasmania many of whom are members. Easy flights from the north to Melbourne also meant Tasmanian fans could reasonably easily attend Melbourne games.
I suspect loyalties will be tested when a Tasmanian team enters the AFL. Had Tasmania joined the AFL in the 1990s there would be no such dilemma for me. However, deprived of top-class football for so long loyalties for me will be tested when North Melbourne play Tasmania. It will be the same for other people too – but few will admit it.
The task for the Tasmanian Devils’ brains trust is to create newer younger members who will become over the years rusted on. The fact that the AFL gave the Tasmanian Premier a hospital handpass and squirrel-gripped the government into a one-sided agreement does not endear me to the AFL. It is now hellbent on turning our sport into a giant game of keepings off which might in fact destroy it.
I note Bellerive Oval is cashless, and my strong prediction is a new stadium will be the same scenario as cashless presents major cost savings for vendors.
A recent world-wide IT outage created havoc and brough electronic means of commerce to a complete halt. Imagine that happening just before or during a match with 20000 spectators.
It could conceivably happen by accident as in the recent event I mentioned or by the hand of criminals or malicious hackers. We must develop some contingencies should this happen during or just before an AFL football match in Tasmania.
Finally, on a lighter note I mentioned we took a two- and one-half year old to her first footy match. Little Jasmine saw her mother and I clapping North Melbourne goals. Kids that age love to clap. The problem was she wanted to clap all the Geelong goals too!
