Launnie Long-standers: Balls n Bumpers

Jane Freeman was on her way to lunch with a friend when she passed a sports store in the Launceston CBD. The AFL merchandise in the window made her double back for a second glance. The thought that came to her was immediate: that's exactly the kind of business I'd like to own. "I'd been in retail for thirty-odd years," says Jane, "and I thought it was something my husband and I could run together.” The very next day, Balls n Bumpers was advertised for sale in the local paper.

That was in 2013, and the store already carried more than a decade of history. Balls n Bumpers had its regulars, its rhythms, and its particular loyalty. But Jane could see it had stopped moving, and she knew exactly how she wanted to run it. Her first job had been at a small gift shop, where every purchase was gift-wrapped and no customer left without feeling properly attended to. Three decades in retail will tell you a lot about what people actually want from a shop, and what they want, she found, is not complicated. "Just to help the customers and make them feel seen and heard," she says simply. That was the standard she brought with her.

After purchasing the business and officially taking the reins in January 2014, the footy cards were the first big change Jane made. The previous owners had stopped stocking them, and Jane brought them back almost immediately. "That is our biggest seller," she says, "because the kids can collect it." The decision unlocked something broader: a reason to keep coming back, a reason to bring friends. She doubled the floor space and started running trading days where children could swap cards after school or on a Saturday. AFL players started coming in for appearances. The store became a place with a life to it, not just a shopfront. "If we can do something like get the football players in or the trading days with the kids, they have a ball," she says. "We like to give back to the kids especially."

Balls n Bumpers is the only dedicated AFL store in Tasmania, which is not a small thing in a state with, until 2026, no home team, where football loyalty runs deep and sideways across a dozen interstate clubs. Over the years the range has grown beyond AFL to include eight ball and darts, and now the Tasmania Devils are finally on their way. On the morning of this interview, Jane had already sold out two kinds of Devils gear before the day was properly underway. She had been waiting for this. "If we don't have it, we get it for them," she says. That approach, quiet and constant, is the whole philosophy in a sentence.

Jane has never been precious about trying things. There have been cars parked in the back of the shop just to make people curious as they walk by. There was even a Christmas pop-up for a season. "I'm always putting back into the business to try something different," she says, "and if it doesn't work, we try something else." When COVID came, it turned out to be one of the better stretches for the store. People were stuck at home and looking for ways to spend, and the sport and hobby market benefited in ways Jane hadn't expected. "Covid was remarkable for us," she says. "People overcompensated. They couldn't have a party, so they bought more." They ran click and collect from the door; the online side picked up. Jane thinks Launceston has a different quality to it. "People in Tasmania like to relate," she says. "They like to come in and see you today and come back tomorrow. It's about building trust."

Her advice to anyone thinking about buying or starting a business here comes without fanfare. "It's not as easy as everyone thinks," she says. People imagine money and freedom, and what they find is the opposite for quite a long time. She has tried things that didn't work and moved on without much fuss, always reinvesting, always watching for the next idea. But under all of it is the same simple thing she has been doing since the beginning: being there, reliably, for the people who come back. She has watched customers marry and have children, and watched those children grow up and enjoy spending time in her store. "It takes a good five years to get to know your business, and then after that, you start to reap the rewards. You've just got to have patience." All of it comes back to the same thing. "Treat the customers like they are number one, because at the end of the day, they are.”