Gillon McLachlan must act to fix Tasmanian football crisis

THE AFL’S dismissal of Tasmania’s bid to become an expansion club 10 years ago has contributed to the crisis it’s in now and Gillon McLachlan must act, writes MARK ROBINSON.

James Hird presented a report to the AFL about the viability of a team in Tasmania.

GILLON McLachlan is in the middle of the greatest crisis confronting football.

And it’s his crisis to fix.

It’s called Tasmanian football and it’s dying.

McLachlan was handed the hot potato from former AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick and ex-CEO Andrew Demetriou who decided not to give Tasmania an AFL licence, instead preferring expansion clubs on the Gold Coast and in western Sydney.

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It’s a been a sickly child for sometime, Tassie, but events this year, namely the loss of Devonport and Burnie from the state-wide competition, which threatens the talent pathways in the north-west region, has thrust Tasmania into the football discussion.

Fear and sadness has engulfed one of football’s heartlands.’

There’s politics, too, and the AFL is accused of picking favourites — and family — for key positions without an interview process.

As the AFL likes to think, they know best.

The AFL believes a Tasmanian-based team is not economically viable.

There are calls for AFL chief Gillon McLachlan to fix Tasmania’s footy crisis. Picture: AAP

Back in early 2008 when expansion was the rage, James Hird was invited to AFL headquarters by McLachlan to discuss a report, completed by Hird’s consultancy company Gemba, into the viability of a standalone club in Tasmania.

The report was a key component of Tassie’s bid to become .the 18th side in the AFL.

The report ticked off all eight criteria set by the AFL, which was wonderful news to the Tasmania Government which had spent $200,000 on the Gemba report.

But the AFL wasn’t happy.

The AFL already had expansion clubs — Gold Coast Suns and the GWS — in motion and a document detailing why Tasmania should be the next AFL licence was not supportive to the AFL’s agenda.

Hird departed AFL headquarters believing the folks in charge, Demetriou and McLachlan, never had their heart in an AFL team in Tasmania.

When a Tasmanian Government party, led by then premier Paul Lennon, visited AFL House about the same time as Hird, they too were given short shrift.

Paula Wriedt, who was then Tasmania’s minister for economic development and tourism, said Demetriou had blocked their bid and was “rude’’ and “dismissive’’.

Almost 10 years later, the dismissal of Tasmania then has contributed to the crisis now.

New Tasmania football boss Trisha Squires, a part-timer before her promotion, denies there is crisis.

In the same breath she has invited McLachlan to visit Tasmania — he has said he will “soon’’ — and this week wanted McLachlan to revisit the recommendations in the most recent paper on Tasmanian football, the Garlick Report, which was completed in 2016 by former Western Bulldogs chief executive Simon Garlick.

The AFL expanded to the Gold Coast and western Sydney under Andrew Demetriou’s leadership. Picture: Nicole Garmston

On Thursday, it was labelled a review of the review by Tasmanian stalwart Robert Shaw, a proud Taswegian.

It is a complex situation.

Hawthorn and North Melbourne play games in Tasmania, there are economic failings in the region of Burnie and Devonport and, among many other challenges, the fact just one player has been drafted in the past two years. Tassie had 16 players drafted in 1990.

Tassie is sick and McLachlan needs to fix it.

Not all football fans understand the economics, investment and on-going support needed, be it to help the ailing competitions and talent pathways, let alone the introduction of a new team.

But they do understand history and heartland and what’s the right thing to do.

We accept the need for expansion north to grow the game, but it can’t come at the cost of an entire state.

Demetriou’s legacy will be the Suns and Giants, and there already are serious concerns for one of the teams, Gold Coast, which has cost footy hundreds of millions of dollars.

McLachlan’s legacy is ahead of him.

His baby is the whiz-bang AFLX, but he must remember Tasmania is a grandfather of the game itself.

Mostly everyone with a love of the game wants a team in Tassie and it’s time the AFL came clean on its intentions.

Do they want a team or do they not?

Are they serious about not only saving Tassie footy, but having it flourish again, giving youngsters hopes and dreams and, one day, the immediate sight of playing for their state?

It’s staggering it’s come to this.

As Jack Riewoldt told the Herald Sun: “Don’t forget us, Gill. We may be minnows in many eyes but Matthew Richardson, Alastair Lynch, Peter Hudson, Royce Hart, Ian Stewart and Darrel Baldock all started somewhere in this great state. Help us find the next Tasmanian champion.”