A mangy sewer rat has announced he is sueing the Tasmania Devils Football Club for “having appropriated my name and likeness without authorisation.”

Ramon ‘Rabid’ Ratcliffe, of no fixed abode but generally residing in the murky depths of Macquarie Point stadium costings, made the shock declaration this morning following the public debut of the official club mascot, Rum’un.

“As soon as I saw that miscreant gerbil, that tattybogle pseudo-marsupial, that horror-movie hunchback humgruffin, that growling grungehound in a Ghillie-suit, I knew they had something quite special in mind: me,” Ratcliffe stated.

“The dopey expression, the bedraggled fur covered in bile, the calluses on the knees from scrapping around the Chamber of Commerce bins for stale, half-baked ideas, it’s all totally me,” he said.

Ratcliffe – “you can call me RRR, but say it like a pirate, cuz” – who has a capital T tattooted on his bicep, said the letter stood for the word ‘treachery’.

“I once talked to Boss Cocky Grunt Dillion about getting a Hobart rat squad into the national league of shit-eating vermin,” he explained.

“I was genuinely just wanting to provide a platform for our talented local rats here … but anyway he conned me into promising him my first born for seven generations and a Dillion-dollar dumpster as home ground. With a roof.”

“We even had a mascot ready to go, based of course on the divine manifestation of yours truly: Bum’un, more arse than class.”

Tasmanian Times can reveal that the Bum’un mascot costume was designed by Terrible Puppet Theatre and was specially conceptualised to feature Tasmanian heritage and values.

“It’s mainly misery green, with flashes of cowardice yellow, offset with the blood of anyone standing in the way of Tasmania Inc.” Ratcliffe continued.

“As for the material itself it’s a wonderful mix of shredded forestry agreements and pokies legislation, stitched together with barrelled pork for maaates, all waterproofed with gobbets of rotting salmon fat.”

ALP Leader Dean Winter said he would support Ratcliffe’s legal action as it provided jobs for lawyers.

“Jobbity job jobbing ratty jobble jobbo,” he stated at a media conference held daringly on the precipice of a stadium-sized budget black hole.

Meanwhile Devils Head Banana Brendan Gargoyle was unavailable for comment following the Rum’un launch.

A spokesperson said he was otherwise occupied trying to design the Devil’s AFL Women’s team mascot, Coke, named after his favourite sport.

Has the Devils’ Rum’un ripped off RRR’s self-styled mascot, Bum’un? You are the umpire!