TSL coaches have backed Tasmania’s VFL bid but one gave Gillon McLachlan a serve

The TSL coaches support the move to find out in September whether or not the state will have a VFL team but one reserved a slap for AFL boss Gillon McLachlan.

AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan. Picture: CHRIS KIDD

TASMANIA’S top football coaches have backed the AFL Steering Committee’s plan to bring forward its application deadline for a VFL license but one coach believes the state will have to recruit players from interstate to be competitive.

Lauderdale coach Darren Winter said it was smart to move the deadline forward nine months from June 2020 to September, decided by the AFL committee in Melbourne on Wednesday, before entering a team in the VFL in 2021.

DEVIL OF A DEADLINE FOR VFL LICENCE

“It gives us more time to get prepared, see where your playing group is, get your coach organised and see whether the players we’ve got in the state are up to that level,” Winter said.

“I don’t think we’ve got enough players right now to step up into playing VFL football.

“We’re talking about playing against guys who are full-time footballers.

“We’re part-time players here and we’ll be travelling all over the state to train and it will be really hard to get guys ready.

“We’ll need a fair bit of help from the mainland with recruiting, and then sometimes you can lose your identity as a Tasmanian team, so we’ve got to make sure we get the balance right.”

Only a few players from the Devils under-18 team will be VFL-ready when the time comes.

“The Devils program right now may not have too many kids who are going to go straight into that VFL experience and be ready for it,” Winter said.

“We’ll have to get a bit of help from outside.”

Tasmania’s VFL team is seen as a precursor to the state’s own AFL team, but Winter isn’t buying it.

“Gill McLachlan [AFL boss] has given us no date, and we’ve been talking about an AFL team for the past 25 years and it’s no closer – it will be another 25 years before we get anywhere near it,” Winter said.

“This [VFL team] is a carrot to bypass putting an AFL team into Tasmania.

“Until Gill McLachlan stands up and says ‘this is the date’ we won’t get one, he’s just fobbing us off and it’s not good enough.”

North Hobart has 12 players in the Devils program and senior coach Richard Robinson said his club supported any player with higher aspirations.

“In a couple of years some of them will be ready for VFL football and we wouldn’t begrudge them being part of that squad,” Robinson said.