Devil of a deadline to get Tasmania a VFL licence

Tasmania’s plan to enter a senior men’s Devils football team in the VFL in 2021 will now be revealed nine months ahead of its original schedule.

TASMANIA’S plan to enter a senior men’s Devils football team in the VFL in 2021 will be revealed by the end of September — nine months ahead of its original schedule.

The decision to bring forward its own deadline to secure a VFL licence was made on Wednesday in Melbourne by the Gill McLachlan-led AFL Steering Committee that investigated the state of the game in Tasmania last year and announced an overhaul of football in Tasmania.

KEEP TASSIE STEERING COMMITTEE, SAYS AFL COACH

MIXED SCORE ON GAME PLAN FOR TASSIE FOOTBALL

Wednesday’s meeting was the first time the Steering Committee — including Tasmanians Brendon Bolton, Nick Riewoldt and Chris Fagan — had met since June.

AFL Tasmania’s CEO Trish Squires said its primary aim was to provide an update on progress and implementation of initiatives, as well as to spring her own plan to bring forward the VFL deadline.

The committee agreed, much to Ms Squires’ delight.

TSL CLUBS BACK TASSIE VFL AND MARINERS TEAMS

DEVILS ARE BACK WITH BITE IN DAWN OF NEW ERA

AFL BOSS UNVEILS TEAM TASMANIA PUSH

AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan and AFL Tasmania CEO Trisha Squires. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

Tasmania already had been granted a provisional VFL licence, but it was not going to be confirmed or denied until mid-way through next year,

“I felt that June, to run out the next year, was going to be a tight turnaround and I want to make sure we do this really well,” Ms Squires said.

“I feel confident we can submit a really strong application. I walked away from the steering committee knowing we’ve made some progress and we all agree there’s a lot of work to do.”

Ms Squires also walked away with the blueprint Tasmania needs to secure a VFL licence from AFL Victoria.

“We have now got a criteria we need to meet as part of our licence application,” she said.

There are four pillars of requirements to meet: governance and administration (staffing structures); financial sustainability (budget, and managing travel and logistics costs); onfield competitiveness (recruitment strategy and pathways); and community connection (strong working relationships).

“I now, with my team, need to work through this application process,” Ms Squires said.

“Some of the work we did during the steering committee last year is already in place and we need to revisit that and start working on that process and submit that to AFL Victoria at the end of August for them to consider.

“We need to know if we got the licence a lot earlier so we’ve got all of next year to work on the list management, strategy and partnerships.”