The Heart of it: A distinctly Tasmanian conversation

If you peruse the honour boards of Ulverstone sporting clubs, there’s every chance you’ll find the surname Pearce – more than once. And if you look at the honour roll of the Fremantle Football Club, you’ll find the name there too, under the title of captain. Alex Pearce was somewhat of a late bloomer when it came to football but despite an inordinate number of serious injuries, Pearce has emerged as one of AFL’s finest and most res...

The only Tasmanian to win the coveted Norm Smith Medal, Colin Robertson, grew up on a dairy and potato farm in the small north west town of Yolla. The paddocks, with tree limbs for goals posts, were Robertson’s equivalent of the MCG and where he honed his skills before starring with Wynard in two premierships. Multiple VFL clubs came calling, but the dashing wingman opted for emerging Hawthorn and quickly became a key member of the...

A member of the Tasmanian Team of the Century, Paul Williams was drafted to Collingwood as a schoolboy and after a controversial move to the Sydney Swans in 2001, played in an AFL premiership in his 294th game. The Williams story has many fascinating chapters. From family run pubs, fish and chip shops and Tasmanian state league football, to the tragedy of losing the man he refers to as his on-field minder, Magpie teammate Darren Mi...

A key pillar in Essendon’s quest for an AFLW premiership, Wynyard’s Ellyse Gamble has enjoyed the highs and lows of football and of life since being drafted while on an east coast bushwalk in 2017. Gamble ran out for the Western Bulldogs in their first ever AFLW game, but injury robbed her of the chance to play in a premiership the following year. Last season, she played in round one just days after the devastating loss of her fath...

Laura McBain was a young mother when she packed up her belongings and moved from Sydney to the northern Tasmanian town of Exeter. After a challenging start to her new life in Australia's smallest state, McBain would rise from humble beginnings to become one of the country's most successful businesswomen. Now, a rusted-on Tasmanian, McBain is a key member of the Tasmania Football Club’s inaugural board and playing a crucial role in ...

The Launceston suburb of Waverley might be best known for its woolen mill, but it can also lay claim to a Collingwood premiership star. Doug Barwick was recruited to Fitzroy after winning a best and fairest with East Launceston in 1983. A powerfully built player with a prodigious kick, Barwick's switch to Collingwood in 1988 proved life changing. He kicked the match-sealing goal in Collingwood's drought breaking premiership in 1990...

There have been few more brilliant or flamboyant footballers than Campbell Town’s Brent Crosswell, who won four VFL premierships with Carlton and North Melbourne. 

An extreme talent possessing skill, speed and power, Crosswell was a schoolboy prodigy, whose feats in big games were legendary. 

But he was also highly temperamental and, by his own admission, indifferent to the game. This was a constant source of friction between the s...

A former Tasmanian player who became a state league senior coach at the age of 24, Zane Littlejohn quickly established his credentials winning back-to-back premierships with North Launceston. 

After being lured to the Brisbane Lions, where he worked under fellow Tasmanian Chris Fagan, Littlejohn is now the senior coach of VFL club Box Hill and working as a development coach at highflying Hawthorn. 

The north west coast product isn’...

A champion swimmer, who once shared the pool with Olympic golden girl Ariarne Titmus, Nicole Bresnahan only started playing football as a 19-year old. Just a couple of years later she was drafted by North Melbourne and selected to play in the Kangaroos’ first ever AFLW match. As she readies for her 50th game with the club, Bresnehan is also working full time for AFL Tasmania, helping to develop the state’s next batch of elite playe...

With more than 18-thousand first-class runs, former Tasmanian captain Jamie Cox is a revered figure in cricket and widely considered as desperately unlucky to have never played in Tests for Australia. What is less known about the Wynyard product, is that he was once an Essendon footballer – despite being completely oblivious to the fact. In 1987, a young Cox was drafted by the Bombers, initially without his knowledge, but he was to...

Andy Bennett is proof you don’t need to be born in Tasmania to become a Tasmanian – a very passionate Tasmanian.  Originally from Broken Hill, Bennett was very late to football but quickly rose to prominence representing the revered South Australian state team in the late 1970’s. After stints with Hawthorn and St. Kilda in the VFL, which included a near-death encounter with the fearsome Tony Lockett, Bennett made the lifechanging d...

One of only four players in the history of the game to win three Brownlow Medals, Ian Stewart describes the harsh environment that gave rise to his immense football talents. Stewart spent his early years on Tasmania’s rugged west coast, but his childhood was most shaped by his experiences living alongside orphaned migrant children at the Hobart welfare institution, Boys’ Town. Football was to become his salvation, as a teenage Stew...

There is no better example of the importance of the state’s AFL license to young Tasmanians than the story of Ian Callinan.

A star junior, the Rokeby product was the epitome of the natural footballer – highly skilled on both left and right foot and with an uncanny sense of where the goals were.

But despite a glittering football resume, Callinan’s dream of being drafted to the AFL was a cruel tale of continual rejection.

It took a m...

One of the AFL’s finest wingmen during the 80’s and 90’s Darrin Pritchard played in three premierships with Hawthorn, the club he barracked for as a child. In this episode, Pritchard details how he had initially hoped to play for Fitzroy. He also reflects on his childhood growing up at Mount Nelson, the guidance of Chris Fagan and Andy Bennett at the Sandy Bay Football Club and captaining Tasmania in one of its most famous triumphs...

The state of Tasmania is well known for its football champions, in this episode a true champion of Tasmanian football’s quest to join the AFL, former premier Peter Gutwein, discusses the strongarm tactics he used to help deliver the coveted 19th license. Gutwein also shares his own extraordinary football story, which began as a kid at Myrtle Park, saw him represent Tasmania and play senior NTFA football at the age of 15. By his own...

With 727 goals in only 129 VFL games at an average of 5.64, the extraordinary goal kicking feats of Australian Football Hall of Fame legend Peter Hudson will never be surpassed. In this episode, the champion full-forward reflects on his early years growing up behind the Boyer Oval in New Norfolk and his cherished memories of playing in a senior premiership with his father as a 15-year old. From kicking 18 goals in a game against Ho...