Carter report: Tasmanian premier threatens to pull pin on AFL games unless league makes call on Tassie team

The Colin Carter report has been handed down and Tasmanian premier Peter Gutwin has been angered by the AFL’s response. Read the full report and have your say.

Tasmania will expel all AFL games from the state next year unless the league gives a decision on the state’s own team.

A fuming Tasmanian premier Peter Gutwein lashed the AFL over league chief executive Gillon McLachlan’s refusal to give a verdict on a Tasmanian team this year.

Gutwein said if the AFL would not commit to an answer by the end of the year he would strip the million dollars of funding from Hawthorn and North Melbourne to play games in the state and spend the cash on other major events.

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It follows the release of the AFL-commissioned Colin Carter review on Friday which recommended three three options for the future of AFL in Tasmania:

• A 19th licence;

• A relocated team from Melbourne; or

• A joint venture with a Melbourne-based club playing most or all of its home games in Tasmania.

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Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein is not happy with the AFL. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

McLachlan said the AFL Commission had vowed to explore all three options, but has noted a relocation or joint venture would provide the “best chance” of success.

McLachlan ruled out any possibility of the Gold Coast Suns being relocated.

McLachlan said the report was a “big step” towards a Tasmanian team, but could not provide a timeline for a definitive answer.

“There’s a clear decision from the Commission that any decision to relocate or joint venture rests with the directors and members or individual clubs,” McLachlan said..

Gutwein, who as a footballer made his name as a tough onballer for East Launceston in Tasmania and Swan Districts in Perth, saved his best shirt front for McLachlan.

“I’m annoyed,” Gutwein said. “This is 30 years of frustration, not all mine, but 30 years of frustration from a community that once again appears to have been treated with disrespect in my view.”

He said without a decision from the AFL, Tasmania would not renew or rollover the current deals with Hawthorn and North Melbourne to play a combined eight games in the state a year and worth a total $8 million to the clubs.

“If the AFL doesn’t meet that timeline and we can’t get a decision by the end of the year, we will not accept any more excuses and if that means AFL content is not in Tasmania next year then be it on the AFL’s head,” he said.

“We are reasonable people.

“The unfortunate thing is Tasmanians have been too reasonable for 30 years with the AFL and we are in the position we are today where once again the AFL has taken the view they can kick the can down the road.

“Let me be clear, there will be ramifications for that.”

He said he was quite prepared to pour the millions of Tasmanian taxpayers money into local sport, or bringing other sports or events to the state next year.

Hawthorn plays four games a year in Launceston. Picture: AFL Photos/Getty Images

McLachlan said a Victorian club could set itself up “for the next 50 or 100 years” by putting its hand up to be part of a Tasmanian solution.

Most ‘away’ games for the club could be played in Victoria where the club would be based and the board would be split 50-50 between its Victorian operations and Tasmanian interests.

After 10 years, a panel could decide where the bulk of the club’s support sits and would decide its future permanent residency.

Hobart-born St Kilda legend Nick Riewoldt says the AFL must consider making Tasmania the competition’s 19th team and thinks they could be playing matches within five years.

The Tasmanian AFL taskforce member was buoyed by Colin Carter’s “overwhelmingly positive” independent report – commissioned by league headquarters – on whether the state could have its own side.

But Riewoldt echoed others in saying either scenario with an incumbent club was unlikely to eventuate, given the hurdles involved in making that happen.

“The immediate reaction seems to have been to pit clubs against each other,” he said on Fox Footy.

“If you’re talking about a joint venture or relocation, all of a sudden it becomes, ‘Well, we don’t want to be in that boat’.

“I still think the 19th licence, which would be the preference of all Tasmanian people, in my opinion, is viable and should be the option looked at moving forward.”

Where Riewoldt’s frustration lies in the AFL’s reaction on Friday to Carter’s report was there was no timeline or pathway offered for Tasmania’s potential entry into the league.

Nick Riewoldt is frustrated by the AFL’s reaction to the Carter report.

The former Saints forward said he could see a Tasmanian team playing in the AFL in “five to seven years”.

“Today, it was Covid that was the excuse given,” he said.

“In Colin’s report, which was again commissioned by the AFL, he said the Covid situation should not be an excuse to give an affirmative answer.

“I think people would understand you can be flexible with those timelines, given the nature of the world and what is happening.

“But (the lack of) a loose timeline and pathway to be able to move forward and stop spinning the wheels is where the angst lies.”

Riewoldt also said he would be “nervous” if he was an official at North Melbourne and Hawthorn, which receive about a combined $8 million annually from playing games in Tasmania.

Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein has threatened to block the AFL from playing matches in the state, in protest at the lack of movement in discussions about its own side.

“I think (it’s) contained within the report; that by 2030, it will cease to be the No.1 sport in Tasmania,” Riewoldt said.

“It sounds a long way off, but it’s not that far away.”

North Melbourne did not comment on Friday, while Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett said he had read the Carter report but would not be “jumping to any conclusions” until the club had met with the Tasmanian Government, state opposition, AFL and fellow club presidents.

“I hope by September, when we (the clubs) meet again, we might be able to take the report and come to some realistic and reasonable outcomes,” Kennett said.

While the report’s findings will be discussed with AFL club presidents next month, the ongoing

financial strain on the industry as a result of COVID-19 means a final decision could be some time away.

North Melbourne’s deal to play four games a year in Hobart ends this season. Picture: AFL Photos/Getty Images

“This pandemic has contributed to a collective loss of revenue of more than $700m and is currently costing up to $6m a week to continue to keep the competition going,” McLachlan said.

“It (a decision) will take as long as it takes. It is not appropriate right now given all the uncertainty to make a recommendation to the presidents.”

Any decision would have to receive the backing of 14 of the 18 club presidents.

Tasmanian born and former Fitzroy and Adelaide coach Robert Shaw slammed Friday’s announcement and said the Carter review vindicated the state’s business case for a 19th licence.

“Relocation or joint venture would not be accepted by a culturally strong and historically loyal football population” Shaw said on Twitter.

“They will NOT unite behind contrived, orchestrated, relocated or merged.”

But Tigers great and proud Tasmanian Matthew Richardson said he was looking to the positives, believing his state was “edging closer” to having its own team.

“We don’t want to rent one “

Relocation or joint venture would not be accepted by a culturally strong and historically loyal football population. They will NOT unite behind contrived, orchestrated, relocated or merged.

“If not achievable a 19th licence also VIABLE” https://t.co/bqjgYCcDSs

— Robert Shaw (@shawry_analyst) August 13, 2021

“Colin Carter is highly-respected and while it does seem a bit ‘same old, same old’ if you dig a little deeper, I’m looking at it as a positive outcome in that he thinks there should be a team in Tasmania and that it would be financially viable with government backing,” Richardson said.

“So if I was a Tasmanian wanting a team, it’s another carrot for them to keep pushing at it, because eventually it will happen. We’ve come this far, keep going.”

With both the NBL and NRL in the midst of expansion, Gutwein said the AFL using Covid as a delaying tactic was not good enough.

“We are happy to discuss that time frame,” the Tasmanian premier said.

“It was (20)25-26, if it means we have to slip a year or two because of Covid and the impact on the AFL’s finances then we are prepared to look at that.

“This is what really disappoints me about the AFL.

“Every business in this country is planning for the future.

“What I heard this morning was the AFL are so paralysed by Covid that they are not prepared to lift their eyes to the horizon and do with matters that are in front of them.”

The report also dismissed notions of population size, player retention, talent drain, the state’s economy and the “north-south” rivalry as reasons not to include a team.

“To me the 19th team passes the test,” Carter told the Herald Sun.

“There are risks with it and it would be dependent on government funding for operating costs, but I am saying the 19th team passes the test, but we also have an obligation to look at alternative models.”

Tigers president Peggy O’Neal, who read the report on Thursday, said her view would be to back a Tasmanian team.

“It’s not that we have to vote in favour (of a Tasmanian AFL license) but you would have to vote ‘I don’t want it’ if you didn’t,” O’Neal said.

“It is good that it is being looked at seriously by a credible person, who has had a long involvement in football and understands all the perspectives that have to be taken into account.

“My view would be yes, but I haven’t read everything or received all the information yet.

“Overall, I’m a big fan of Tasmania and what it has brought to football over all these years, so from that perspective they should (grant a license).

“But will they? That’s another question.”

McLachlan said a relocation would only be voluntary via the club’s own board and members, and not forced by the league.

Carter said while a 19th licence would stand up — as a bottom third club on the AFL’s wealth ladder – a club would thrive if it agreed to be relocated or become part of a joint venture.

“It is not an exact analogy, but if you had a chance of owning half a Melbourne Cup winner or 100 per cent of a horse that didn’t win anything, how would you make that trade off?” he said.

“The case for a 19th licence stands … but there are better options.

“If you take a 100-year view of these things, which I think you should, we should look at other options which might not look too flash in the near term but are worth looking at.”

Originally published as Carter report: Tasmanian premier threatens to pull pin on AFL games unless league makes call on Tassie team