Former Tiger gives thumbs up for Darwin teamSam Landsberger and Jon Anderson
Herald Sun
6 March 2020Northern Territory great and newly-elected Member of Parliament Joel Bowden has endorsed a future AFL club to be based out of Darwin.
The former Richmond star pointed to the success of four-time NFL Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers, from the small town in Wisconsin, as evidence an NT team could work.
“You’ve got to go to the (United) States for the comparative analysis – the Green Bay Packers,” Bowden said yesterday.
“Green Bay have got a city of 200,000. (But) they invest, they attend every game, it’s packed out, you can’t get a ticket because they all have memberships, and they’ve been one of the most successful teams in NFL history.
“That’s the model the Northern Territory in the north could adopt and should (adopt).”
Bowden, 41, has returned to live in the NT since he won two All-Australian guernseys and two best-and-fairests across his brilliant 265-game career for the Tigers.
Bowden said the climate would not be a problem, despite football season running through wet summer months and cricket held in winter.
Darwin has a population of 132,000, while Alice Springs is 25,000.
“Conditions are easy. What’s required is commitment from all sides,” Bowden said.
“That’ll be the government, that’ll be the AFL, that’ll be the community – and it’s a long-term goal.”
While there would be significant financial challenges, the AFL pumped a record $27.5 million into the embattled Gold Coast Suns last year.
Per capita more people play Aussie rules in the Territory than anywhere else and the romance of an NT club would capture the football world.
The Herald Sun yesterday reported that a 100-page scoping document that mapped a 10-year plan for the NT to win an AFL license had been completed.
The feasibility study, set for release later this month, was commissioned by AFL NT, funded by the NT government and completed by Bastion Collective.
NT chief minister Michael Gunner told the Herald Sun yesterday: “This study will tell us what steps need to be taken to make the dream of a Territory AFL team a reality.
“Territorians love their footy, and we produce some of the AFL’s top players. We deserve our own AFL team – but this is a long term vision.”
Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon wants Tasmania and the NT to be granted AFL licenses to create a truly national 20-club competition.
Recruiters believe modern football is marginalising indigenous players, making it increasingly difficult for clubs to draft talent from remote areas.
But an AFL club based in the Northern Territory would deliver a clear pathway that would help grow the talent pool.
NT has produced legends including Andrew McLeod, Michael Long and Cyril Rioli and an AFL club would be dominated by indigenous talents.
In 2014 Brisbane Lions legend Michael Voss coached against a Desert All-Star team that was handpicked after a four-day carnival contested by 12 indigenous communities.
“You can’t tell me we didn’t just play a bunch of blokes who could be playing AFL,” Voss said immediately after the exhibition match at Hermannsburg Oval, about 130km southwest of Alice Springs.
“I looked at a few today and thought, ‘My god, there’s speed to burn, they cover the ground, they’ve got great skills and they’re marking the footy well’.
“We look abroad, we go the Irish experiment, we go the American experiment, we go to China, we go to Papua New Guinea but maybe we should go ‘man, you seen what’s in your own backyard?’”
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/more-news/newly-elected-member-joel-bowden-endorses-an-afl-team-in-darwin/news-story/f516e6c9fe20c3978fcb6d334299c79c
