Survival of the fittest in Knight’s toon down to ballots not ball skills

Tasmania is an Aussie rules state. The Apple Isle has produced many champion AFL players that have come to mainland Australia to play in the national competition. But Tasmania does not have its own side in the AFL. For a long time, it was talked about and questions were asked about whether it could support its own AFL team. Where would the team be based in Tassie, Launceston or Hobart, and what would it be called?

Finally, in May 2023, the AFL granted a licence for the Tassie Devils to become the 19th team in the national AFL and AFLW competitions, and for a new stadium to be built at Macquarie Point Hobart. The club would start playing in 2028.

But – and it was a mighty big “but” – AFL approval came with a condition: the team would only go ahead if the costly 23,000 seat stadium with a roof was built. Former AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan and Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff signed the deal to huge excitement from Tassie footy fans.

Now, two years on, the economic recession* has bitten deep into government coffers* and the Tasmanian economy has struggled. People were starting to question whether Tassie could afford to build a billion dollar stadium.

Pressure mounted and this week in the Tasmanian parliament, the Labor Opposition launched a “no confidence” motion* against Liberal Premier Rockliff. As I write this column, the debate in the parliament is still taking place and the fate of the Premier hangs in the balance as independent MPs say they will back the no confidence motion. What does this mean for the Tassie Devils footy club, I hear you ask?

Well, it’s like this. Premier Rockliff has staked* his political career on the stadium being built and is a strong supporter of it. If he goes, then the stadium’s construction is in danger, and if there’s no stadium, the AFL says there’s no Tassie Devils. The whole thing rests on a knife’s edge. So I thought a cartoon on the topic might be warranted.

My first thought was, “Oh no, not another endangered* Tasmanian marsupial!”

I wouldn’t say real Tassie devils are cute and cuddly – in fact, they are angry little creatures that tear strips off each other, they growl and scream like banshees* and omit a “pungent*” odour, but despite all that, they make for a very good footy team mascot.

I have loved drawing the Tassie Devils mascot in its green AFL jumper with the gold map of Tassie on its chest with the red “T” (just in case you didn’t know that the yellow blob on the jumper was Tasmania). So I started sketching our little devil, and as I did, I thought about that other famous Tasmanian marsupial, now extinct, the thylacine or Tasmanian tiger.

Would our mascot for the proposed 19th team in the AFL go the way of the Tassie tiger? There was a strong possibility. So to illustrate this idea, I employed an age-old illustrative technique – the reflection – to get my point across.

The reflection of the Tassie Devil as the extinct Tassie tiger explores the potential of what “could be”. So as our Tassie Devil mascot walks down the street in Hobart, its reflection in the shop glass window reveals “what might be”, a portent* of the future. The devil sees this and the expression on its face is one that all fans of the Tasmanian Devils Football Club are feeling at the moment.

Let’s hope the politicians and the AFL can sort it out. It would be a great boost for girls and boys in Tasmania to have their own club and a huge boost for the state as a whole. Go Devils!

POLL

GLOSSARY

• coffers: chest, or large, strong box for keeping money and valuables
• recession: period of low economic activity, when investments lose value, businesses fail and unemployment rises
• no confidence motion: when members of a parliament or an organisation do not support a leader and move to force them out by a special vote
• banshees: spirits in Irish stories that take the form of wailing women
• pungent: something that smells or tastes very strong and sharp
• portent: omen, sign, prediction of future event

EXTRA READING

Devil’s in the detail of Mark Knight AFL cartoon

Tasmania locks in first AFL recruit

Tassie storms into the AFL

QUICK QUIZ

1. When did the AFL grant approval for Tasmania to
2. What was the condition upon which that approval was granted?
3. What is the current estimated cost of building the stadium?
4. What happens in Premier Rockliff is ousted by the motion of no confidence?
5. Which extinct animal native to Tasmania does Mark Knight use to illustrate the club’s crisis?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Values, identities and actions
Study today’s Mark Knight cartoon and answer the following questions about the work:

• What values does this cartoon invite us to think about?
• Who is this cartoon speaking about? And who is this work trying to speak to?
• What actions might the viewpoint in the cartoon encourage?

Time: allow 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

2. Extension
How can cartoonists like Mark Knight encourage or change people’s opinions on a controversial subject or topic?

Do you think his work needs approval before going to print? Explain your answer.

Time: allow 10 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY
Describe it
Look at the cartoon and make a list of five nouns that you see. Then describe those five nouns with five adjectives. Now add a preposition to those five nouns and adjectives.

Finally, choose your favourite bundle and put all the words together to make one descriptive sentence.

(For lower reading level articles, remove “add a preposition”)