Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie slams Andrew Dillon and the AFL’s leaders over Tasmania debacle

Senator Jacqui Lambie says the AFL has the ‘most unimpressive leadership’ she’s ever seen, blasting the league for ripping Tasmania apart and urging it to ‘come back to the f***ing table’.

The AFL “is going down the gurgler” and needs new leaders “with some knackers between their legs” to step in and fix the Hobart stadium debacle, Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie says.

Lambie, who met league chief executive Andrew Dillon and Tasmania Devils boss Brendon Gale in the AFL’s Docklands boardroom in January, said she walked away believing they were “nice blokes, but not much chop”.

“I had to tell Jeff Kennett and Eddie McGuire that it was the most unimpressive leadership I’ve ever come across,” Lambie said.

“Sitting in front of those men I thought, ‘Oh my god, no wonder the AFL is going down the gurgler’. I reckon they are really struggling.

“Quite frankly, if that is the best leadership team they’ve got it’s pretty disappointing. There was just nothing. You need some hardcore people in there.

“I’d built myself up and was ready to go thinking I was going to have to take on an Eddie McGuire-type thing and it was like walking into a sauna: ‘Here everyone, get your towel wrapped around you, let’s have some fuzzy wuzzy time’. Jesus.

“Their demeanour was fine, they were being polite to me, but my point is their minds were already made up.”

Jacqui Lambie has slammed Andrew Dillon and the AFL

Lambie said the AFL weren’t interested in discussing the details of a damning report into the costs of the proposed Macquarie Point stadium authored by economist Nicholas Gruen.

“I thought, ‘Are you really that far outside the ball park mate that you cannot see what is really going on?’ I mean we are heading to an election – how’s that going for you?” Lambie said.

“The only thing that is going to save the AFL is to get a Jeff Kennett back in there.

“Someone better go back in there that’s got some balls between their legs because there is some sh*t going on in there that needs to be fixed. And they know it as well.

“They should come out and be honest because the AFL is in a dilemma, and not just in Tasmania. They just don’t have the right men at the helm.

“I had 12 years in the army, mate, so I can tell you, ‘That’s a leader, that’s a leader’. These are nice guys, don’t get me wrong, but they were like, ‘Yeah, whatever’.

“There was just no reaction. I was thinking, ‘Do you guys not care if this goes ahead either?’ It’s all fine. Well, it’s not f***ing fine. We are going to an election. We have a problem.”

Lambie said the AFL needed to come up with plans B and C to save the Tasmanian team due to take the field in 2028 – and do it fast.

“This should have united Tasmania, but instead it has ripped us apart,” she said.

“I’d just say to Andrew Dillon and the whole lot of them – start showing some leadership. They are nice blokes, but they’re not much chop.

“We are in trouble here in Tasmania – man up and call us back for some other options because we don’t have the money for a roof.

“Let’s take our time on this. Slow and steady wins the race. We want this team, so come back to the f***ing table.

“They need a hard man at the top – somebody with some knackers between their legs. Christ almighty.”

The AFL is refusing to budge on its demand for a roofed stadium, but Kennett on Friday called for the deal to be scrapped and the team to be based in Launceston.

Originally published as Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie slams Andrew Dillon and the AFL’s leaders over Tasmania debacle