Not the priority, but a relocated team not off the table in push for a Tasmanian AFL team
Tasmania is clamouring for its own AFL team – but some experts have said there may be another way to secure a team, rather than pushing for a 19th license. Latest >>
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AFL boss Gillon McLachlan says Tasmania entering the league as a 19th stand-alone team was still very much in consideration.
Some — led by Gold Coast chairman Tony Cochrane — believe the state’s only chances of entering the league is if an existing team relocated south and that due to the economic consequences of the COVID pandemic, expansion was not feasible in the near future.
However, McLachlan said he was not ruling anything out ahead of the independent review of the state’s business case mid-year.
“The responsibility of the review now and to work forward is to look at all of the options,” McLachlan said on SEN radio.
“I don’t think you can take a 19th team off the table although there are some who think it looks unusual or it is too expensive or it is the wrong decision.
“You have to look at it all on its merits to get to where the right outcome is.
“I don’t describe to that it is definitively off the table.”
Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein has been pushing the AFL to provide an answer on the decade old debate and hopes to get a decision by the end of this year with a club to enter the league by either 2025 or 2026.
McLachlan promised the review would be a thorough, independent report into the Tasmanian AFL team Taskforce’s business case that was completed in February 2020.
Even if the review proves a Tasmanian team is sustainable and gets the AFL commission approval, it would still require the support of 14 of the current 18 club presidents.
“This is not being taken as a box ticking exercise,” he said.
“It is a proper look as the report has come from the Taskforce in Tasmania.
“It is a bit of a line in the sand moment for Tasmania, the Premier has famed it like that and I think that’s appropriate.
“This is a proper review that will then go at the right time to the commission and then if it goes down that path and then to the presidents.
“This is the way this thing works and at the end of the day the presidents have the final say on expansion if that’s the way it goes.
“The commission will not consider the decision until we feel we have a more stable environment so there are a few things to jump through first.
“This is a proper exercise.”
Relocation on the table in push for Tassie AFL team
March 13, 2021
TASMANIAN Premier Peter Gutwein has left the door ajar to the state being open to a relocated AFL team.
While the focus and No. 1 priority remains securing a stand-alone team, a 19th AFL licence, Mr Gutwein did not rule out completely the possibility of one of the existing 18 teams moving permanently, as South Melbourne did when it relocated to Sydney in 1982 and Fitzroy did to Brisbane in 1997.
“Our business case is based on achieving the 19th licence for an AFL team to provide Tasmanians with a genuine pathway from grassroots football to the national league,” Mr Gutwein told the Mercury.
“However, we want our junior footballers to be able to play at the highest level, in a Tasmanian team and if the AFL determined that an existing licence should be relocated, that is a matter for them.”
North Melbourne already has a strong link to the state playing four home games here and a shared AFLW licence, but the club has repeatedly stated it has no intention of leaving Melbourne.
It comes as AFL Taskforce chairman Brett Godfrey hit back at interstate critics who suggest a 19th licence is not viable.
It follows on from Gold Coast Suns chairman Tony Cochrane ruling out a 19th club joining the league due to the COVID-19 outbreak and its economic consequences.
But Mr Godfrey, who chaired the Taskforce that presented the business case to the Tasmanian Government and the AFL, believes COVID should not stop the state’s quest to become the 19th team.
“Wasn’t the Global Financial Crisis in 2008?” Mr Godfrey said.
“Of course it was and guess what happened in 2009? The Suns secured a licence and GWS did the same a year later.
“Tasmania has never sought a licence for 2020 or 2021, but pick a future date — be it 2025 or 2026 — and simply work to that.
“This isn’t brain surgery.”
Mr Gutwein is pushing for inclusion in 2025 or 2026, but to do so Tasmania would need a “special majority” — support of 14 of the 18 clubs as well as the AFL commission.
Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett, who has stated previously his club supported a Tasmanian team, said he would wait until he sees the review before stating whether he would back a business case that passed the independent audit.
“Let’s wait and see what it says,” Mr Kennett said.
“It might come in with conditions with all sorts of things, I have no idea.”
He said the time frame announced on Friday would allow negotiations between the state’s current cotenants, Hawthorn and North Melbourne, to resume with the state government.
“If he (Mr Gutwein) is looking at 2025-26, what’s he going to do [for AFL content] between now and then?” he said.
“That only suggests he’s getting closer to restarting negotiations.
“That (a three-year-deal instead of the historic five-year contracts) will all be part of the renegotiations.
“We started the negotiations then they were put on hold so let’s see what comes of it now.”
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