Tasmania's push for an AFL team faces its "hardest yards" in convincing club presidents to vote for the bid, Brisbane coach Chris Fagan says.
But Fagan believes Tasmania has a compelling case to win an AFL licence at a vote of the 18 club presidents in August.
Fagan, a proud Tasmanian, is the latest in a string of high-profile AFL identities to throw his support behind the bid.
"When you think of the players that we have contributed to the game, I think it's a no-brainer for me," Fagan has told a podcast organised by the bid.
"And I think deep down in everyone's heart, everyone knows that. The appetite is there.
"The business case is strong. That has always been the killer on it all. I think that has been so well put together now the AFL would be hard pressed to ignore this one."
The Tasmanian government has pledged a new stadium in Hobart and financial commitments understood to be about $10 million a year for the initial decade of the club, which could enter the AFL by 2028.
"I am so pleased it seems now that it is real serious and getting to the pointy end," Fagan said.
"And the last yards are often the hardest yards.
"But I just encourage everybody in Tassie to get behind it. It will bring so much business to the state, it will highlight how beautiful Tasmania is, it will get more tourists there, the lift to the economy."
Fagan played 263 games in the Tasmanian Football League, represented the state 11 times and was coach of the Under 18 Tassie Mariners from 1995-97.
"I have felt strongly for a long time, probably because I coached the Tassie Mariners and all of those kids went on to play AFL footy," he said.
"I used to think to myself back then, 'Why can't we just have our own team and build our own talent and get in there?'.
"We're a footy state. It seemed logical to me.
"But obviously there was financial and political reasons why that never happened,.
"We weren't seen as a growth area for the game, I guess, where Sydney was and Queensland was, so Gold Coast and the (GWS) Giants pop up, not a Tassie team.
"Just from a historical point of view I always felt we deserved that opportunity."
