ONE glaring and savage irony in the ongoing and compelling push for an AFL team based in Tasmania is the fact that the state itself has never officially asked for one.

In fact, both levels of government appear more than happy with the current arrangement with Hawthorn who has committed to Launceston and Aurora Stadium until the end of 2011.

The Hawks will make their 2008 official season debut against Adelaide there on Sunday where locals reportedly will petition for the introduction of a Tasmanian club. This is no criticism of them or their passion. Nor is it a whack directed at ANZ chief economist Saul Eslake, respected Age columnist Tim Lane or Tasmanian-born football identities Robert Shaw and Rodney Eade.

But the truth is their well-argued push for inclusion into the AFL is not truly supported by Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon who, surely in this climate of expansion, would have taken some official stand if his state could support it.

Hawthorn chairman and former Victorian premier, Jeff Kennett, says all the right things when he visits the state with which he has helped create such a mutually beneficial relationship. He supports a Tasmanian team in the AFL, whatever that might mean for the Hawks.

Such statements are always Kennett's opening messages before he rightly and super-diplomatically points out why the AFL is right in heading its new franchises towards the Gold Coast and the western region of Sydney. Last week the president of AFL Tasmania, Dominic Baker, agreed.

The expansion into the Gold Coast and the formation of a 17th team by 2011 will dominate the discussion at today's meeting of the 16 clubs. If the AFL desires to spend any time on other developing markets then it should be centred upon Canberra and the shameful manner in enthusiasts there have been treated poorly by the game that was once an AFL cornerstone to expansion.

Canberra was wooed, embraced and then rejected by North Melbourne, which turned its head towards the Gold Coast for financial profit before deciding its future was at home. What a lot of time, money and community support previous administrations at that club have wasted.

Manuka Oval now gets the dregs and Canberra's best hope of forging any sort of ongoing relationship is to continue to host the Sydney Swans in an away capacity.

Tasmania has received a significantly better deal. "The feedback we get when we go to Tasmania is overwhelmingly positive to what the Hawks are doing," said Hawthorn chief executive Ian Robson, a Tasmanian native.

"They would love to have their own team but hopefully in the short term, the medium term and maybe even the long term they are understanding of the economic logic that the AFL is talking about."

More than 11% of Hawthorn's membership is now Tasmanian and close to 20,000 fans should turn up at Aurora Stadium on Sunday.

"Tasmania is a fantastic AFL state but when we went through a process of looking to a number of markets, in terms of population growth and support and the opportunities to increase football participation at all levels, the compelling cases were the Gold Coast and western Sydney," said AFL executive Gillon McLachlan.

Has Tasmania officially put its case to the AFL in the past five years? "Not to my knowledge," said McLachlan. AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou confirmed as much.