Premier turns up the heat on AFL as McLachlan prepares to visit the state

THE AFL is set to unveil its steering committee tasked with solving Tasmania’s football crisis. WATCH THE PRESS CONFERENCE

AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan arrives in Hobart on Wednesday to begin the push to solve Tasmania’s football crisis. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Media

THE AFL will on Wednesday unveil its steering committee tasked with solving Tasmania’s football crisis.

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AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan will finally land in Hobart to meet with Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman and AFL Tasmania chief executive Trisha Squires.

The withdrawal of Burnie and Devonport from the TSL and the dwindling number of Tasmanian AFL draftees has triggered the latest crisis, which has unified the Tasmanian football loving public and the game’s current and former champions in calls for action.

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Premier Will Hodgman.

Trisha Squires.

Mr Hodgman said he would be discussing a plan for a Tasmanian AFL team for the future with Mr McLachlan, and did not hold back on his assessment of the health of the code in one of Australian rules’s heartland states.

“We’ve got the North-West Coast of Tasmania not represented in our state league and that is disgraceful and unacceptable,” Mr Hodgman said.

“We need to address that.

“We need to do more to increase levels of participation in grassroots footy in Tassie.”

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It is believed to be Mr McLachlan’s first visit to Tasmania since the signing of North Melbourne’s five-year contract to play three games a year in Hobart in June 2016.

Mr McLachlan will not meet any club presidents or representatives from grassroots leagues or teams during his visit.

IN HIS WORDS McLACHLAN ON THE DAY BURNIE WITHDREW FROM THE TSL: “We’ve got a really clear plan for Tasmania. We’ve launched the academy down there with the Kangaroos and the numbers are good. “So, I think you can look at this through different lenses, and that’s certainly how we see it.” McLACHLAN AT A PRESS CONFERENCE: “We have acknowledged the challenges and have been trying to remedy them. “There is an emotive element in the minds of Tasmanians, there is an unresolved ambition to have their own team in the AFL.” McLACHLAN AT THE AFL SEASON LAUNCH: “In Tasmania, there is a divide and there are some issues which need to be addressed. “But I promise you, the AFL will not forget or abandon one of our founding states. Football is about a sense of belonging and connection and we will work with all of Tasmania and its fans to ensure that happens.”

He will also not travel to the North-West Coast — the centre of the most recent issues.

Mr Hodgman said the Tasmanian football community was struggling and that was the responsibility of Mr McLachlan and the AFL.

“It is Gillon’s job and that of the AFL to ensure that a foundation football state like Tasmania is well supported, well resourced, has a strong strategic plan to increase participation ... and to ultimately have our own team playing in the AFL,” he said.

Aside from Mr McLachlan and Ms Squires, the make up of the steering committee remains unknown.

“I feel like Gillon and the AFL are taking my requests and Tasmanian football seriously, evidenced by Gillon’s visit to our state just a day out from the AFL season,” Ms Squires said.

“The steering committee will assemble to revisit the Future Directions of Tasmanian Football Report [known as the Garlick report] focusing on the recommendations pertaining to Tasmanian State League and the talent pathway.”

Mr McLachlan, who joked on FoxFooty on Monday that he would need a “Popemobile” to travel around Tasmania, will front the media on Wednesday morning.

POLLIES TEAM UP ON MCLACHLAN

ANY discussion on the health of football in the state must include the push for a Tasmanian AFL team, says Premier Will Hodgman and Tasmania’s federal Labor politicians.

AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan will meet Mr Hodgman in Hobart to discuss the latest crisis to hit the sport.

“Let’s be clear, there aren’t many Tasmanians who don’t dream of the day Tasmania has its own team playing in the AFL,” Mr Hodgman said.

“It is not a national competition until that happens.

“I will be passing that view again on to Gillon.

“He’s got to outline in my view, or the AFL needs to outline, a plan for that to occur.”

Tasmania’s four Labor MHRs — Julie Collins (Franklin), Brian Mitchell (Lyons), Justine Keay (Braddon) and Ross Hart (Bass) — have written to Mr McLachlan requesting a meeting, with the state’s own AFL team high on the agenda, with the backing of Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.

The letter says the withdrawal of Burnie and Devonport from the TSL highlights the “urgent need for the AFL to do more for the development of football in our state”.

“However, beyond identifying and assisting in resolution of these concerns, one issue that must be on the table is an AFL team for Tasmania,” the letter says.

It quotes Mr McLachlan’s speech at the National Press Club in August 2015 when he said Tasmania “deserves its own team. It just does.”

The letter says: “Tassie has a proud history of producing some of the country’s most talented and iconic footballers and we believe it has a bright future as a footy powerhouse, barracking for its own team.

“Labor looks forward to working with the AFL to try to secure a strong, sustainable future for football in Tasmania, including the prospect of a Tasmanian AFL team.”

LEGENDS OF THE GAME HAVE THEIR SAY

BRISBANE LIONS COACH CHRIS FAGAN:

“I worked in Tassie and played in Tassie when playing footy meant something.

“It was good, it was healthy and it was great grounding and preparation if you wanted to go on to other things in footy.

“It doesn’t seem to be like that now, it seems aimless. It needs to have something at the top that people can aim for.”

FORMER SYDNEY, WESTERN BULLDOGS AND GOLD COAST COACH RODNEY EADE:

“The AFL’s dropped the ball, no doubt.

“For them to say it’s been OK for numbers the last two years, well it shows it hasn’t been.

“It’s heartland football and the AFL don’t put [in] enough resources and don’t care enough about it.”

FORMER RICHMOND GREAT MATTHEW RICHARDSON:

“For me, there was clearly more opportunity on Tasmania’s North-West in my junior years then there is now.

“I look at it now and there’s no State League team, the Mariners program appears lost — there’s effectively no pathway for players. Every avenue seems to have gone.

“It’s important that we don’t neglect one of Australia’s football heartlands — which has been a great breeding ground over the years.”

FORMER FITZROY AND BRISBANE GREAT ALASTAIR LYNCH:

“If the foundations are cracking, you’ve got to fix it.

“There’s no point doing a reno on the roof if your foundations have got cracks all through it.

“You need to put well-considered funds into decent programs.

“The AFL will say they are doing that — tell us, what are you doing? How are you tracking?”

FORMER FITZROY, ADELAIDE AND TASMANIAN STATE OF ORIGIN COACH ROBERT SHAW:

“We are not in there because our people watch AFL on television. We are a captive audience.

“Our loyalty to the game and our strength has proven to be our weakness.

“We are taken for granted and then they roll out all the rubbish excuses about economy, membership and isolation. How silly is that? It is so disappointing.”