The bid to get a Tasmanian team into the AFL appears exhausted, despite an agreement to get top flight football played in Hobart for the first time.

North Melbourne this week signed a three-year deal to play two games a season at Bellerive Oval from 2012, in addition to the four games Hawthorn will play at Launceston's Aurora Stadium.

In announcing the deal, AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou said it could only help the Apple Isle to the promised land of having a team of its own.

"It doesn't hurt it and it doesn't mean it goes backwards. It can only be a positive step," he said.

"I think the future is bright for AFL in Tasmania."

They were soothing words, but the AFL has made it clear its priority is establishing itself in the untested markets of the Gold Coast and western Sydney through infant clubs the Suns and the Giants respectively.

The league's administration all but ignored the island's last serious bid for a team in late 2008, and since then the Tasmanian government has focused on attracting games of any kind to the state.

The tilt for a Tassie team has widespread sentimental support amongst the footballing public on the mainland, especially those who see the AFL as too concerned with making money.

But despite the oft-cited list of champions from the Apple Isle and its passion for the native football code, the story of Aussie Rules in Tasmania is one of bitter division and petty jealousy between the state's north and south, which far outweigh the interstate rivalries of the mainland.

And unlike fellow Aussie Rules states South Australia and Western Australia, Tasmania lacks a strong statewide league.

The Tasmanian State League has seen several reincarnations over its 131-year history, but has been plagued by financial and administrative difficulties, and only found a competition structure to suit the state's sparse population in 2009.

There are historical, political and economic reasons behind the north-south divide, but outsiders, including Demetriou, are baffled by the war of words which is often plays out in fiery editorial exchanges between the Launceston Examiner and the Hobart Mercury.

AFL Tasmania general manager Scott Wade says the rivalry has held the state back.

"In the halcyon days of Tasmanian footy back in the `60s and `70s, if Tasmania could've found a way to work together, rather than be so parochial and so divided, we'd already have a team of our own by now," he tells AAP.

"I guess it's a challenge for AFL Tasmania to unite the football community and then see if we can entice our politicians to think whole-of-state, rather than regionally.

"But that's a pretty significant challenge in Tasmania."

Wade says AFL Tasmania have all but given up on being allowed into the league in the short term.

"From our point of view it's about whenever the AFL think it's the right time for Tasmania to be seriously considered for a team, then we've just got to make sure we're ready for that opportunity," he says.

"AFL Tasmania's focus is about working with the league to create more AFL content in the state and going from there."

But Saul Eslake, the former chief economist of the ANZ and a key part of the 2008 bid, says the current administration doesn't take Tasmania seriously.

"While Demetriou is there I don't think anything meaningful will happen, it'll be token gestures and crumbs from the table," he says.

"His attitude was really encapsulated a couple of years ago when Hawthorn were playing the Western Bulldogs in Launceston and it turned out to be the match of the round.

"Demetriou said, `we won't be making that mistake again', because to schedule a game that people actually might be interested in was, in his words, a mistake."

Eslake says, in own colourful way, the North Melbourne deal was another slap in the face for Tasmanian footy fans.

"The AFL never insulted the football loving people of Adelaide and Perth by sending them struggling Melbourne teams to play a couple of inconsequential games," he says.

"It's like throwing a hungry dog a few scraps from the table and hoping it will go away with its tail wagging."

With the AFL not likely to increase the competition beyond 18 teams any time soon, it seems the best chance Tasmania has is the relocation of a struggling Melbourne team like the Kangaroos.

But Wade says AFL Tasmania isn't counting on it.

"There's no expectation from us that North Melbourne will relocate to Tasmania," he says.

"We believe North Melbourne is the best chance for Tassie in the long, long term, but we're not even considering that yet."

Besides, says Eslake, Tasmanians would rather follow their own team.

"I've been an Essendon supporter since 1968 and I would sign up to a Tassie team the day that they are announced," he says.

"I wouldn't regard North Melbourne, at least initially, as a real Tasmanian team."

Eslake says the argument that Tasmania would lack corporate support is a fallacy.

"We proved that argument that the league made was bollocks," he says.

"First of all, the stadium deal that a Tasmanian club would have at Aurora Stadium would be about the fourth best in the league.

"The second thing is we had sponsors. Mars said they would be our major sponsor, and the Tasmanian government would only need to pay $1 million less than they're contributing to the Hawthorn deal.

"People say, `where are the major corporations in Tasmania?,' but look at Collingwood, whose major sponsor Emirates is based in Dubai."

There's no doubting his passion, and if the Tasmanian AFL team is ever to get off the ground, it needs more voices in the wilderness like Eslake's.

It also needs the AFL to listen.

But most of all, Tasmania needs to get over its toxic and small-minded regional division.

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