Don't grab your eyes, you're really watching this.
The Tasmania AFL Club announced its mascot on Tuesday night, with images of the event showing Australians making the same joke.
On Tuesday night, Tasmania Devils Chairman Grant O'Brien explained how the mascot was created in extensive consultations with the local community.
But it has not stopped people from the “mainland” who are shaking their heads at the unveiling ceremony, which looks like a rat. The new creature was handed the name Rum'un. This is a local slang term that describes a bit of a cheeky person.
The announcement comes just 12 months after the AFL's 19th team showed off its colour and Apple Isle logo as they prepared to take part in the contest in 2028.
The use of the Tassie Devil Emblem and traditional green, yellow and red colour schemes gave the club's mascot a fierce flop to the commentator's eyes.
Tasmanian Michaela Marie Whitton responded to the first photo post of X's mascot AFL, writing that she “want to cry.”
Posted by one X user: “It's outside of a horror movie.”
One responded to a post from Sen Tasmania, writing, “It looks like a mouse on the New York subway.”
Another wrote: “Are you kidding me?”
Other poor commentators pointed to Rum'un's similarities with other Australian icons, including the lipolytic Denbat, immortalized at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
However, people associated with the club and design were extremely proud that the mascot was announced.
As reported first Code SportsBrionie Anderson, the chief designer of Hobart's Terrapin Puppet Theatre, was given simple things because her work is “Kick-Ass,” but was also friendly enough to not surprise the kids.
Ju umpire is still on the front line.
The report said Anderson said children at Howler Elementary School received the design warmly when they were given Sneak Peak in February.
“The signs were really good when the devil was sturdy for 30 minutes and left the room for a spontaneous chant, when the devil was wooed… 'Devil, the devil,'” Anderson said.
“I really hope people just feel it's their devil.”
Terrapin approached the Tasmanian Football Club with the offer to make Rum'un.
“They are [Terrapin] I asked if I wanted to work on it and we said if we could get community and Palawa playwright Nathan Maynard involved with the character.
“We worked with Nathan and he wrote a story of the character's origins. It's an epic. Born with football in the mouth of the mountain, born gravel and struggle, which informed the character.
“Then I went outside and spoke to the team at the training ground. I took the sketch and said what you were thinking?
“They said they had to be kickass to represent Queenstown players on gravel, they had to have a tut.
“Some people wanted a full arm tat, but some of the Clarence girls have fixed it to Tassy Tatt, but it's not too scary as some of the kids on Auskick might be scared, so be cheeky instead.
“So I got a bit cocky and 'Don't ruin me.'
“They had a lot of ideas and I did my best to incorporate them all.”
“All the kids who were part of it will feel ownership.”
The team still has a lot to do before 2028.
The biggest headache to plague the club is political football, played around the new 23,000-seat rooftop stadium being built at Macquarie Point in Hobart.
The project's cost was initially rated as a $775 million hit to taxpayers.
However, an independent economist in January told ABC that the project “already displays the characteristics of the management error” and likely costs more than $1 billion.
O'Brien has explicitly closed the proposal that has receding the team's stadium timeline, despite construction not yet underway at the showpiece facility in Macquarie Point.
The six-person panel is currently reviewing a roughly 5,000-page report compiled by Macquarie Point Development Corporation. This includes factors such as heritage assessment, urban planning and the potential economic impact of the $780 million stadium.
The project must pass both parliaments of Tasmania's parliament. The stadium is an important part of Tasmania's licensing agreement with the AFL, where teams compete in 2028.
Tasmania Football Club CEO Brendongale said in a statement earlier this week that Ramung is a true reflection of the club.
“Our newest recruit, Rum'un, will help us on our journey and be a great beacon for clubs across the state,” he said.
“The creation of Rum'un reflects our club. It was created with the distinctive Tasmanians, handmade and grit and determination that represent the entire island. Rum'un is also a little cheeky.
“All of these traits are faithful to the Tasmanian Football Club. The Tasmanian Football Club is a club representing our entire state and who does things the way we do it.”
