Eddie McGuire blasted over ‘bulls***’ Tasmania plan

Eddie McGuire has pitched a radical solution to bring more AFL football to Tasmania but it’s far from what the state actually want.

Eddie McGuire on Footy Classified. Photo: Channel 9

Eddie McGuire’s radical plan to combine a Melbourne-based team with Tasmania to form a “super club” has gone down like a ton of bricks after it was blasted as “bulls***”.

The admission of a 19th team into the AFL from Tasmania has been a hot topic for the competition and has reportedly left the current 18 clubs split on allowing a new side into the league.

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But on Channel 9’s Footy Classified on Wednesday night, former Collingwood president McGuire proposed a hybrid model, meaning the Kangaroos split its season between Melbourne and Tasmania.

It comes after outgoing AFL boss Gillon McLachlan revealed the league was only considering a new team rather than relocation but that Tasmania would require a new stadium.

Former Collingwood president Eddie McGuire. Picture: Alex Coppel.

North Melbourne are also not keen on relocating.

“This is not driving a team, this is not pushing a team out, this is an idea,” he said on Footy Classified.

“For the simple reason that North Melbourne are struggling at the moment, their supporters are a little bit upset, there’s not much going on, the crowds aren’t big.

“Take this on board as a proposal to think about and see if this is better for the long-term future of North Melbourne and a Tasmanian combination — instead of having two weak clubs, it becomes a super club.”

McGuire proposed that the Roos would play 22 home games a season — 11 at Marvel Stadium and 11 in Tasmania. He also proposed $20 million up front, three years of draft concessions and access to Tasmanian players “to give Tasmania the sense that this is their team”.

McGuire also said the AFL need to get behind the team and build the fixture around getting big games to Tasmania, build the new stadium in the state and focus on junior development.

For North Melbourne to not do this, McGuire said the Kangaroos would lose Tasmania games and the money they get in the deal, while draft concessions for a new franchise would hurt the Kangaroos most.

Alastair Clarkson as coach was another string for McGuire. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

When defending the plan, McGuire said the world was heading for a recession and “the money won’t be there” for a new team.

Continuing to defend his proposal on SEN on Friday morning, McGuire said a new Tasmanian franchise would not be successful for at least a decade.

“I think it’s a way of making sure that you are a club going forward,” McGuire said.

“(Because) they might start with 19, but they won’t end with 19. No one wants 19 teams, including all the TV organisations who are about to put $600m in to the footy. I know there’s a few clubs who want 16.

“If (Tasmania) can have their own team, knock themselves out. You’re not going to win a game for 10 years, and it’s going to be heavy going.”

But a new team is what Tasmania want.

Former Tasmanian premier Peter Gutwein blasted McGuire’s idea as “bulls***”

“Eddie McGuire has a lot of ideas, some sillier than others but on this one you’ve just got to call bulls**t,” Mr Gutwein said.

“Tasmania has made its position clear now over a number of years.

“The 19th licence is what we want, it is what the state deserves and importantly it would be good for football.

“It is incumbent on the AFL to carry through with what they said they would, that is to put the case for a 19th team to the presidents in August.

“There is a compelling case, a case that has been built over a number of years, and we shouldn’t have off the cuff ideas such as the one Eddie floated us diverting us from the main task — to ensure Tasmania gets the team it deserves, a team that would be good for football not just in Tasmania but right across the country.”

Ex-premier Peter Gutwein has been an outspoken advocate of the Tasmanian expansion. Picture: Grant Viney

Tasmanian sports minister Nic Street also took aim at the comments from McGuire.

“I’m just frustrated that we have keep having to have this conversation because people with profile within the AFL industry who know better and know this is not what we want and we’ve made it clear keep bringing it up,” he said, adding that the team needs to inspire the next generation of players by being based in the community.

“We don’t get that if they fly on a Friday, play on a Saturday and fly out Saturday night or Sunday morning,” he added.

On SEN Tassie on Friday, Street fired another shot after McGuire said the likes of Tasmanian-born star Jack Riewoldt and journalist Tim Lane live in Melbourne.

“That’s typical of Eddie McGuire,” he said on SEN Tassie.

“As soon as he’s challenged on one of his bulls**t proposals he resorts to cheap insults. Absolute garbage from him.

“The only thing we’ve said is that a relocated team won’t work and now he’s resorted to the tired old cliches about nobody would want to live in Tasmania.

“He makes the point that Jack Riewoldt and Tim Lane are talking from Melbourne, that’s because they’re AFL people and there’s no AFL team in Tasmania, so where would they be?

“They would be in Melbourne, wouldn’t they?”

Tasmanian Sports and Recreation Minister Nic Street fronted media.

Street also blasted Gold Coast boss Tony Cochrane, a vocal critic, who told the Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast: “I have nothing against Tasmania. I have everything against the 19th franchise”.

He said the proposed $750 million Hobart Stadium could lose up to $12 million a season.

But Street took aim at Cochrane.

“The cheek of Tony Cochrane to talk behind closed doors and publicly to be fair to him, he hasn’t been shy about giving his stupid opinions,” Street said.

“Is the chairman of the club that takes the most money out of the AFL coffers to barely survive, they haven’t played finals football in the 10 years they’ve been in existence and he’s got the cheek to try and talk down Tasmania’s bid for its own team.

“It is just self-serving rubbish and I’m just sick of it.”

Writing on ESPN, Footyology’s Rohan Connolly said McGuire’s proposal was another sign AFL powerbrokers were “failing to read the room”.

However McGuire dresses it up, and whatever the team is called, that’s what this proposal remains. A team not based in the state, which still has a home base on the mainland. It wouldn’t be Tasmania’s team. And North Melbourne supporters would be absolutely justified in believing it was no longer really theirs, either.