Tasmania AFL expansion bid: Matt Rendell says recruiting local talent key to state’s hopes

One of the AFL’s leading talent spotters has weighed in on Tasmania’s expansion bid and how the state could successfully form a competitive team.

Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein is pushing for Tasmania to be represented in the AFL. Picture: Chris Kidd

One-time leading recruiter Matt Rendell says a stand-alone Tasmanian AFL team would face a battle attracting an elite free agent and would need to invest heavily in homegrown talent.

As the Tasmanian Government pushes the AFL for a greater say in who will conduct the league’s independent report into the state’s business plan, Rendell stressed he fully supported the addition of a Tasmanian team.

The man who helped shape the list of a number of AFL clubs believes one of the traditional football states deserves its chance if the business plan stacks up.

But he said it would be a hard sell to poach one of the elite players of the competition – unless they came from a Tasmanian background.

“It’s a great footy state and they deserve to be in it,” Rendell said.

“But it won’t be easy building a list. You are going to really struggle to get the best of the free agents, unless they are coming home.

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“You would only be playing in front of 15,000 (to 20,000) fans every second week because that’s the maximum of their stadiums.

“The elite players want to play in front of big crowds.”

Rendell, who drafted Patrick Dangerfield and Rory Sloane out of Victoria to South Australia, said those behind the Tasmanian push could at least learn from the mistakes made by Gold Coast in its formative years.

“They (Tasmania) would have to do it the right way, or else you would have a Gold Coast all over again (when they struggled early on),” he said.

“But I think they can learn from those mistakes. GWS learnt from the Suns, and a Tassie team could learn from both of them.

“It’s a footy state, unlike Queensland and New South Wales. The good thing is the Tasmanian Government is right behind them as well.

“Tassie is starting to go gangbusters (in terms of business, tourism and investment), but trying to attack the free agency market would be bloody hard.”

Tasmania is desperate for its own AFL side.

Rendell believes those seeking a licence should focus on elite young local talent in the AFL right now with a Tasmanian background, with an eye to potentially poaching them in the years to come.

He also said the aim should be to have at least a dozen local Tasmanian players in the team from the outset.

“There have been bugger all Tasmanian kids drafted in recent years, but I have no doubt they could pick the eyes out of every decent kid in Tassie,” he said.

“If you can get the development right, it could work.

“Get your culture right, put the right people in the right roles, and it just might work.

“If you could get 10 to 12 Tassie kids in the team, you’d be a genius, but that’s what you would be aiming for.”

AFL TO PLAY IN APPLE ISLE REGARLESS OF GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

Jon Ralph and Glenn McFarlane

The AFL has committed to scheduling home-and-away matches in Tasmania next year even if the state’s rivers of gold dry up for Hawthorn and North Melbourne.

But those clubs would have to take significantly less cash than the $8 million currently on offer to play games on the Apple Isle.

The league will attempt to restart discussions with Tasmania premier Peter Gutwein in coming weeks after AFL boss Gillon McLachlan informed him on Friday the league would spend up to a year on its own independent study into a stand-alone team for the state.

Gutwein says his government will not renew contracts with Hawthorn and North Melbourne to play in his state beyond 2021 until there is a road map for a Tasmanian AFL team.

The league’s statement on Friday night said if the Tasmanian government followed through on its threat, “the AFL would propose to deal directly with the two clubs and the implications for them in 2022, as well as for Tasmanian football”.

The Herald Sun understands that means the league would continue to schedule games in Launceston and Hobart in 2022 to continue to develop the state’s football economy.

But there would be no guarantee those teams would secure a financial windfall, forcing them into tough decisions about whether they played in the state for the love of the game.

The Hawks want an answer, but either way, the AFL will play games in TASSIE BEYOND 2021. Picture: Getty Images

Hawthorn’s current deal sees it playing four home-and-away and one pre-season game per year from 2017-2021 for $20 million over the five-year agreement.

Hawks president Jeff Kennett says the club needs a resolution into the impasse by mid-year before it moves on to securing another major sponsor.

Members of the Tasmanian task force, which produced an exhaustive report in early February last year, are insulted the league will wait more than two years to respond.

But the league believes it would be financially irresponsible to commit to a new team midway through the pandemic which is expected to again have a significant impact on the league’s bottom line in 2021.

The AFL said yesterday it was not yet ready to reveal who would conduct that investigation.

But before committing to a new team the league will likely want to restock its future fund after running down $60 million of savings and posting a $22.8 million loss for the 2020 season.

Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett and Tasmanian premier Peter Gutwein won’t catch up next week.

KENNETT ON HIS WAY TO TASSIE BUT WILL HE TALK TO PREMIER?

Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett will travel to Hobart for next Monday’s unveiling of a Peter Hudson statue at New Norfolk, but won’t be catching up with Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein.

Kennett has not spoken with the Premier since the AFL told the Tasmanian Government late on Friday it had delayed a decision on a clear time frame for a potential stand-alone team.

While he said he was always willing to talk, he hoped the current stand-off between the AFL and Tasmania could be resolved in time to allow Hawthorn and North Melbourne room to lock in new deals to play up to four games each in the state beyond the end of 2021.

But Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein said his government would not renegotiate the contracts without a timeline or a definitive no from the AFL on a stand-alone team.

Kennett told the Herald Sun there was no way the AFL would consider bringing a 19th team into the competition, given the current economic climate.

“There are 12 clubs currently receiving additional subsidies from the AFL out of 18 just to survive, (so) the one thing that is certain is that there won’t be a 19th team,” Kennett said.

“Since this issue arose again, the world has changed, and it has certainly changed for the code of Australian rules football.

“The AFL is not in the financial position it was 13 months ago. It could have drawn down a great deal on its line of credit of $600 million by the end of this year if things go belly ache, which it could easily.

“The fact that the AFL wants to review the Godfrey report and look at the aspects that Gill spelt out in his letter is not only understandable, it is responsible.”

Kennett said he was willing to speak with Premier Gutwein at any stage.

“I’m going down there next week … I am going to the unveiling of Peter Hudson’s statue,” Kennett said.

“Peter (Hudson) is a great Tasmanian and a great Hawthorn person who has been a great servant of the club.”

“I don’t think (Premier Gutwein) is going to be there (at the unveiling), I think he sent an apology because he has a cabinet meeting.”

The AFL has proposed to deal directly with Hawthorn and North Melbourne if their multimillion-dollar Tasmanian contracts are not renewed beyond the end of this season.

Kennett sets deadline on Hawks’ Tassie deal

Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett has set a mid-year deadline on striking a new deal to play future games in Tasmania or the club will ­reluctantly quit their home-away-from-home and chase a new major sponsor.

As the standoff continued between the Tasmanian government and the AFL over a timeline for a stand-alone side, Kennett said on Saturday it was “a bit rich” for Premier Peter Gutwein to lash out at AFL boss Gill McLachlan.

The AFL responded late on Friday to the government’s request for a clearer picture on a Tasmanian team.

But the league’s determination to delay a decision for another 12 months — citing the financial pressures brought on by the global pandemic and potentially more ­disruptions this year — drew the ire of Gutwein and ­frustrated Tasmanians.

Kennett said he wasn’t ­“losing any sleep” about the situation, but reiterated the Hawks’ desire to maintain its Tasmanian connection.

The Tasmania Devils under-18 team in NAB League in 2019. Picture: MATT THOMPSON

“We would prefer to stay in Tasmania, we’ve invested 20 years of being the ­‘Tassie Hawks’ and we have a lot of members down there,” Kennett said.

“What all this means for Hawthorn and North Melbourne, we have no idea.

“We just want to know where we stand and we would need to know by the end of June or early July. If Tasmania is not going to be our major sponsor and we are not playing in Tassie (beyond 2021), it will take us six months to get our sponsors into place.

“And the AFL needs to know where we are going to play our games.”

Gutwein won’t engage in discussions on any potential new deals for Hawthorn and North Melbourne to each play four games in Tasmania beyond the end of this year until the AFL provides greater clarity on its strategies.

The Hawks’ and Kangaroos’ current deals expire at the end of this season, leaving the prospect of no AFL games in Tasmania in 2022.

Kennett said of Gutwein’s criticism of McLachlan: “I felt that it was a bit rich by the Premier to express himself in the way that he did.

“The only way we are going to achieve an outcome is by working together … I understand Peter’s emotions, but as Premier of a state, surely he understands what the pandemic has done to his budget.

“He shouldn’t be surprised at what has happened to AFL football.”

Kennett said the Hawks were prepared to sign a short-term deal — potentially three years instead of five — or cut the annual games back to two if that’s what the Tasmanian Government wanted.

The Hawks taking on the Demons in a pre-season match in Launceston last year.

Comment: No saving Tassie footy with AFL’s ugly stepchild

– Jon Ralph

The romance of Gillon McLachlan’s AFL delivering that long-awaited side to Tasmania is almost impossible to resist.

Think a truly national competition; a team stacked to the gills with returning local players and an electric shock of energy to kickstart the state’s faltering junior pathways.

As the AFL’s 18 chief executives found out when they debated the topic as a group some 18 months ago, the reality is markedly different.

In that meeting, as the CEOs decided to actually discuss the elephant in the room, the temperature of said room became decidedly hostile.

No prizes for guessing that North Melbourne and Hawthorn representatives pushed for the status quo, Tasmanian Brendon Gale imagined the possibilities and the rest of the clubs were split down the middle.

As one observer said on Friday: “It all got quite heated in the end. Some were against it, some pushed it strongly and it all got quite narky.”

The simplest remedy for Tasmania’s lack of an AFL team is to relocate a struggling AFL franchise, pump them with money and some extra picks and let everyone go home happy.

Except that is the only outcome that the Tasmanian taskforce is expressly not interested in.

It doesn’t want someone’s dregs, it doesn’t want the AFL’s ugly stepchild, it wants a gleaming bright new franchise, even if it has to wait for that to happen past the current TV rights deal expiring in 2024.

And until the league comes up with a pathway, it won’t negotiate new deals on the contracts that pump millions into the pockets of Hawthorn and Tasmania.

So what that means for existing clubs at some stage is another three-to-five years of a compromised draft and another 10-15 experienced players poached from established clubs.

Based on pure finances, St Kilda would be the nominal favourite to relocate given its $13 million of debt and regular annual distributions of around $20 million, regularly $4 million more than the next Victorian club.

Yet, can you imagine Gillon McLachlan handing back all of the capital he has earned through saving footy in a COVID era and establishing an AFLW competition by forcing a team interstate?

McLachlan is footy’s ultimate deal-maker but he would need to force a team to Tasmania, not coerce them.

Why would he want that blood on his hands as Ross Oakley risked with financial basket case Fitzroy?

RELATED: TASMANIAN PREMIER’S HARSH WORDS FOR THE AFL

One current AFL club CEO, who admits to no firm direction either way, admits years of compromised drafts to assemble the talent pool is a clear roadblock to rival club support.

He spoke of those years of GWS-Gold Coast drafts making it impossible for sides to catch Hawthorn and Geelong as they cashed in on premierships.

“If you were good no one could catch you,” he said.

“Those clubs got the first 10 picks and the rest of us got those picks pushed back and Hawthorn and Geelong just kept trading their picks for players like (David) Hale and (Brian) Lake and the rest of us couldn’t get better.

“If there was a new team getting the first 10 picks it would be like, ‘Here we go again’.”

Tasmanian AFL Hall of Fame member Rodney Eade says a compromised draft could be well worth the sacrifice to see a state’s vision finally borne out.

“You can understand CEOs and clubs having an interest in not only surviving but thriving so they will look at that,” he said.

“But if the draft was compromised for a short period of time, it would be a small price to pay for a national football footprint with Tassie involved.

“I don’t think (attracting or keeping players) would be an issue at all. It’s a great place to live and it’s a footy heartland so you wouldn’t have an anti-Tassie push.

“But what you would find is there are plenty of business opportunities as well if guys have got young families and can see themselves staying there post-footy.

“The state is on the rise with real estate but also with business and the economy. Guys could really set themselves up for life.”

He says the Tasmanian team could echo the Green Bay Packers, just as Hawthorn did under Ian Dicker, a small-market team that would survive with government support, a new stadium that reaps all ad revenue such as Geelong’s GMHBA Stadium and a bridged north-south divide.

Put McLachlan’s legacy another way.

What if the AFL continues to ignore Tasmania and the state that once had the highest per capita rate of participation in football across the nation does see AFL all but wither and die?

Instead of delaying and obfuscating the time has come for McLachlan to make the AFL’s position clear.

Saving Tasmanian football isn’t a bad rallying call as the reason to allow a 19th AFL side.

Nick Riewoldt says a Tasmanian AFL side is more than a pipedream.

Riewoldt: Why Hobart can be the new Geelong

St Kilda legend and Tasmanian taskforce member Nick Riewoldt says players in a team based in Hobart would become “rock stars” with vast financial and lifestyle benefits.

And Riewoldt believes several years of compromised drafts to build the talent for the league’s 19th team would be a small price to pay to help get Tasmanian football back on the map.

As the Tasmanian government plays hard ball with the AFL in demanding a pathway to a new team rather than a relocated side, the issue of assembling talent has been raised as a potential roadblock.

But Riewoldt told the Herald Sun playing in Tasmania would be a destination given the life players could lead in a state with booming real estate and a growing economy.

“The taskforce report covered everything – stadium issues, economic feasibility – and all of those issues were pretty much debunked but now player retention is something that gets thrown up a lot,” he said.

“But you only have to look at Geelong as an example of what players who have embraced Geelong are able to do within that smaller community.

“For a start, players will be embraced by the local community. They will be absolute rock stars. And I think players are becoming more and more savvy commercially.

“Players more than ever have an eye on what comes after their careers as much as what is happening in their careers.

“And the opportunities that would spin off being a career-player for a Tasmanian football team would be incredible.

“I think the commercial opportunities for players would be huge. You only have to look at some of the old Tasmanian guys who made their career in the TFL (Tasmanian Football League) or who came over and played VFL. That opportunity still exists.”

If a Tasmanian team existed players such as Riewoldt and his cousin Jack Riewoldt might have had a chance to finish their careers at a local side, with Mitch Robinson, Grant Birchall, Brody Mihocek and Ben Brown some of the current players with Tasmanian links.

Riewoldt believes many players do not want to live in the fishbowl environment that exists in cities such as Melbourne which creates another selling point for the state.

“You think of the lifestyle down there. It really is an incredible place to live,” he said.

“Hobart is a really cool place now, the east coast is at your doorstep and I just don’t think it’s that tough a sell.

“Guys like Jeremy Cameron and Patrick Dangerfield are well entrenched but guys like them who love fishing and the outdoors, tell me a player wouldn’t want to set up in Hobart with a place on the east coast when property prices are a fraction of what they are in Sydney.”

Nick and Jack Riewoldt are two of Tasmania’s most famous footy exports.

Jack Riewoldt marks in an under-18 game for Tasmania.

Tasmania’s taskforce is adamant it would not consider a relocated team of the likes of Gold Coast, which means the league would have to hand them an array of draft picks that would match the selections given to Gold Coast and GWS.

But Riewoldt says clubs find a way to recruit talent even in years where expansion sides are handing a suite of quality picks.

“We have already done it. We have lived it and come out of the other side of it,” he said.

“I was part of the St Kilda teams which were severely compromised through that period but we saw teams find a way through it.

“It’s a price that has to be paid if you have to establish what we all believe would be a legacy for the AFL that would be so much more of a cost benefit compared to not doing it. It’s a no-brainer.”

Originally published as Tasmania AFL expansion bid: Matt Rendell says recruiting local talent key to state’s hopes