An answer in the great debate for a Tasmanian AFL team could be nigh
Finally, after decades of trying, Tasmania might have a definitive answer on its push to join the AFL.
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- ‘Beggars belief’: AFL CEO punts premier’s request
- Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein won’t back down in war with AFL
FINALLY, after decades of trying, Tasmania might have a definitive answer on its push to join the AFL by the end of this season.
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan has compromised on his stance on an independent review of the state’s business case and will have it completed by mid-year.
It is a win for the state after the AFL originally wanted up to 12 months to complete the review, and Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein said the state should have an answer later this year.
That review will be made public and be presented to the presidents of the existing 18 clubs post the 2021 season.
“By the end of the year I would hope we would have the final decision on our entry in the national competition around 2025-26,” Mr Gutwein said.
Mr Gutwein believed the state’s case would stand up to any independent scrutiny.
“We have a business case that the state believes demonstrates that we can have our own team,” he said.
“The independent review – I’m very firmly of the view that that will stand that case up.
“Faced with that evidence I don’t think the AFL are going to have too many options to be frank.
“But importantly in the conversations I’ve had with Mr McLachlan I think and this is my view, I think he’s of a mind that Tasmania does deserve a team, but that is a matter for him to speak about.”
Under league rules, to gain entry as a stand alone team, Tasmania would not only need the backing of the AFL commission but 14 of the 18 current club presidents.
Mr McLachlan again declined an interview request from the Mercury, but discussed the upcoming review in an interview with Herald Sun chief football reporter Mark Robinson.
“Tasmanians deserve a team, but it doesn’t mean everything we want we get,” Mr McLachlan said.
“There’s always been challenges but the premier and the industry is now saying this is the moment to have a proper look at this.
“Where the Commission lands I’m making no comment on.
“All I will say is it’s a proud football state with its own challenges about why it hasn’t had a team historically. It will be reviewed again.”
Mr Gutwein said the new time frame would allow the state to enter into negotiations with Hawthorn and North Melbourne for games to be played in Launceston and North Melbourne respectively in 2022 once the review was done.
“I want content in 2022,” Mr Gutwein said.
“That review might come back and say Tasmania should never have a team – I don’t believe that will be the case, but once we have that clarity though in terms of the business case in the view of that independent consultant stacks up and provides a pathway to a team then I think the AFL will have no other option later in the year but to agree to Tasmania finally, after decades, having its own team on the national stage.”
Mr Gutwein said talks on who would conduct the review were continuing.
AFL to provide update for state’s push for league inclusion
AFTER stand-offs, ultimatums, big league delaying tactics and the occasional outright blue, Tasmania has reached the next stage in its push for its own AFL club – a time frame update of its business case review.
But Taskforce chairman Brett Godfrey is confident of one thing – the business case stacks up.
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan spoke to Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein on Thursday night to provide an update on the league’s latest stalling tactic, consultation period of a review of the state’s business case.
The case was originally submitted to league headquarters in February 2020, just prior to the COVID outbreak, but it took the AFL finally until last month to finally respond.
The league requested an independent consultant be given up to another 12 months to review the case, an outcome that left Premier Peter Gutwein dismayed and angered.
The state government has been infuriated by the lack of progress on its business case and has said it was unable to renegotiate its contracts with Hawthorn and North Melbourne until there was a resolution on Tasmania’s entry into the AFL.
Mr Godfrey said even with the pandemic the case remained strong and it was never about entering a team next year but seeking a time frame for inclusion, hopefully in 2025.
“While COVID may have moved the goalposts we are still of the view it stacks up,” Mr Godfrey said.
“It was never ever about a team tomorrow. Every football supporter understands that.
“We would hope the AFL provides guidance on ‘when’ not ‘if’ Tasmania can expect a team and that they work towards the implementation.”
Mr Godfrey said it simply came down to willpower for the AFL.
“It can happen if they choose to do it — as they chose to back the (Gold Coast) Suns or the GWS (Giants),” he said.
“Those decisions didn’t happen overnight but they worked to an outcome.
“Tasmania should at least be considered equally, despite it not likely to require the same level of funding from the AFL (as these clubs).”
The Taskforce business case showed a Tasmanian AFL club could run on average funding from league headquarters with an annual state contribution of $7.3 million from the government — less than the $8m the state currently contributes to the Hawks and Roos.
Rolled gold poll for Tassie AFL push
Brett Stubbs and Chris Honnery
February 24, 2021
NEARLY half of all Tasmania would go and watch the club play in the AFL, new polling has shown.
And more than a quarter would consider becoming a financial member, giving a new club access to a pool of 140,000 potential members.
If the vast majority of these went on to become members, it would make a Tasmanian AFL club one of the biggest in the AFL – and that is before tapping into the 300,000 expats living interstate according to the last census.
Polling of 1000 Tasmanian adults by EMRS shows 51 per cent would support a Tasmanian team, 26 per cent oppose a team and 22 per cent were unsure.
The encouraging polls will give Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein further ammunition when he meets with AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan on Friday to discuss the state’s push after the league wanted up to another year to undertake an independent review of the business case.
Asked if they would attend a game in Tasmania if it had a stand-alone team, 44 per cent said they would with another 11 per cent unsure or depending on circumstances, while 26 per cent said they would consider become a member.
The Tasmanian AFL Taskforce business case aimed for 38,000 members in the club’s first year, while 64,000 people pledged support for a Tasmanian entry via the Taskforce’s website in 2019.
But the EMRS polling shows that figure of 38,000 would be blown out of the water even if only half of those who considered joining actually became members.
Last year’s COVID-hit season left average membership for each AFL club at 55,159, led by West Coast with 100,776 while Gold Coast had the fewest with 16,236.
But the Gold Coast – which received $27 million of AFL distribution in 2019, the most by any club – has hit out at Tasmania’s push for inclusion.
Suns chairman Tony Cochrane warned it would be “completely unrealistic” to introduce a new team within the next decade.
A Tasmanian AFL Taskforce has been pushing hard for the state to have its own side by the 2025 season, with the likes of St Kilda champion Nick Riewoldt and Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson throwing their support behind the expansion.
However, Cochrane has warned the AFL Commission to instead focus on growing the current 18 clubs before introducing any more.
When asked on SEN Radio on Thursday whether the AFL could sustain up to 20 teams, Cochrane said: “Not in my lifetime.”
“It’s completely unrealistic,” Cochrane said.
“We need to spend at least the next 10 to 15 years bedding down the 18 teams we’ve got.
“A number of those teams, ourselves included, are on a very tight financial rein.
“Until we’ve got everybody into clear air, I can’t imagine the Commission in their wildest dreams would expand the competition.”
The savvy businessman argued even a 19-team competition could not be viable because a bye round would not help with the code’s media rights.
“It’s impossible to add one team because one team doesn’t do anything for your media rights,” he said.
“The emphasis must be, and I’m sorry for those people in Tasmania, in the next 10 to 15 years to consolidate the 18 teams that are already out there.
“We need to grow the competition from that base and get that right before we put our head out and try and expand again.”
It follows former Essendon star and now Lions recruit Joe Daniher throwing his support behind expanding the competition.
“In the next 10 or so years, it would be great to see AFL teams in every corner of our country, considering it’s a national game,” Daniher said.
Originally published as An answer in the great debate for a Tasmanian AFL team could be nigh
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