Candidates line up for state’s top AFL job
A WHO’S who of Tasmania’s leading sports officials are believed to be lining up to be the new AFL Tasmania chief executive.
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A WHO’S who of Tasmania’s leading sports officials are believed to be lining up to be the new AFL Tasmania chief executive.
Applications for the position held by Scott Wade for the past 16 years closed on March 24.
Communities, Sport and Recreation deputy director Craig Martin, former AFL Tasmania community football general manager Nick Probert, former Clarence premiership player and school sports administrator Blair Brownless, and one TSL club president are all believed to have submitted applications.
SFL commercial, events and media manager Ben Harrison is believed to have applied for the vacant TSL general manager’s position.
Martin has a long history in local football, having played and coached at Old Scholars level and underage level at North Hobart and has had a long career in sport administration and the public service.
Probert, who is now state manager for the non-profit youth charity the Beacon Foundation, was head of AFL Tasmania’s talent pathway in the 2000s before shifting into community football, where he built a strong relationship with clubs.
Brownless, the brother of former Geelong forward Billy, has a teaching background and has worked in a variety of roles for the Education Department in organisation and administration.
Brownless was also briefly club development manager at QAFL club Morningside.
The Mercury can confirm a TSL club president has also applied.
It is understood Harrison has applied for Shaun Young’s old position as TSL general manager.
Aside from his job with the SFL, Harrison is a director and owner of High Performance Cricket and has coached cricket for CTPL clubs Kingborough and University, and Huon and Channel club Blackmans Bay and was the general manager of the TSL Tigers.
The Beacon Foundation’s chief executive, former Labor MHA for Franklin David O’Byrne, has also been linked to the high-profile position but he denied applying yesterday.
The job was advertised statewide and nationally, with AFL Tasmania without a chief executive and the TSL without a general manager since Wade’s resignation on March 15 and Young’s on January 22.
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