There has recently been growing attention on Tasmania for the perilous relationship it now has with AFL football. Originally the traditional heartland of AFL, Tasmanian football has been in a consistent decline over the last couple of years.

This is most clear in the fact the Hugh Dixon from Freemantle has been the only Tasmanian player to be drafted to the mainland over the last 2 years. Now it seems that the situation is reaching a crisis point.

Recently it was announced that the Tasmanian State League or TSL was losing the Burnie Dockers because of a lack of numbers. The Devonport team has also recently revealed it was leaving competitive football because of similar reasons.

Adding to this issue is the news that the AFL has taken its financial support for the Gold Coast from $5.5 million to $25 million AUD. This has led many to believe that the AFL are more willing to support a struggling Queensland than a struggling Tasmania.

The AFL has historically argued that establishing a team in Tasmania was not financially justifiable given the climate of the Tasmanian economy. Some have said while this may be true the fact that the Gold Coast is being bailed out shows a level of favouritism.

Many have argued that Tasmania could in fact support and AFL team if it was given the financial support that Queensland is getting.  They say that the Gold Coast would not be able to support a team unless it was getting support from the AFL.

Others have speculated that the reasons for a lack of funding and interest in Tasmanian football were that many people were leaving the state altogether. The population of Tasmania has decreased over the years as more people look for jobs on mainland Australia.

This has resulted in Tasmania having fewer people to recruit as players and less people to attend games. While there is no shortage of amateur players they are not filtering through the system fast enough to create a competitive pool of elite AFL players.

Many commentators have said that if Tasmania was given the same attention and patience as other states is could easily resurrect its presence in the AFL. For a lot of people this represents another example of Tasmania being sidelined by mainland Australia.

For now, Tasmanian AFL fans will have to be patient and hope for the best. While AFL executives have promised that they have a plan for Tasmania it has yet to be seen how meaningful that plan will be.

Anthony Mundine, a famous retired Australian boxer has recently left the reality show ‘I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here” while holding back tears and speaking of missing his children. Mundine spoke of how he was unable to block out his emotions and could not spend any more time away from his family.

However, Mundine has attracted harsh criticism for his outspoken views against homosexuality. Before leaving for the reality show he said in an interview that the though homosexuality was wrong and that gay people “confuse society”.

He has now become the second contestant to leave the show with Bernard Tomic, a tennis player, departing last week. Mundine told Kerry Armstrong, another contestant, that he had been “struggling” and was missing his family over the almost two weeks he was in the jungle.

After leaving the camp, Mundine posted on social media claiming that while he thought it was an “incredible experience” he was missing his family and had “accomplished everything” he wanted to.

While many people sympathised with his reasons for leaving the show, his renewed anti-gay rhetoric has caused a public outcry against him. Mundine took the chance to reveal even more of his views on homosexuality to reporters who were there to cover his exit from the show.

Mundine told reporters that the believed capital punishment would work to deter homosexual behaviour and keep it “behind closed doors”. Mundine spoke fondly of past decades where gay people were afraid to reveal their nature and had secret relationships outside of the public eye.

He said that if society was structured to severely punish homosexual behaviour then gay people would stop altogether for fear of persecution.  He said that gay people would likely “think twice” before pursuing what he considers to be an immoral lifestyle.

Mundine also said that he was strongly against open representation of LGBTI culture and social justice. He claimed that as gay or transgender people got more rights it would encourage paedophiles to demand that their sexuality be legitimised.

He said that LGBTI people won’t be satisfied “until they have primary school kids being gay”. He was reported saying that he thinks he is speaking the truth and that he did not care about what gay people do because “the creator” would judge them after death.

It is speculated that Mundine was paid large sums of money to appear on the reality show. It was believed he would draw a wider audience because of his history as football player and boxer.

Many commentators on social media have decried Mundine as a sporting legend, saying the he is a national disgrace and should not have been given a platform from which to spread his controversial opinions.