It may be a predictable step to describe the league's $200,000 donation towards Aurora Stadium's $7 million Northern Stand scheme as a joke, but it is also apt.

It brings the AFL's total contribution towards its $30 million Launceston venue to $800,000.

This is the same AFL that in March confirmed it would contribute $10 million towards the redevelopment of Gold Coast's stadium at Carrara.

Launceston City Council welcomed the donation. General manager Frank Dixon said: "I am delighted to have received this news from the AFL," and Mayor Albert van Zetten added: "I am extremely pleased that the AFL has contributed."

But what else could they do? Having finally got some unconditional money out of the AFL they couldn't appear ungrateful.

Even Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett, the most outspoken AFL critic throughout the whole saga, was reluctant to speak his mind until it was suggested that he was being extremely diplomatic.

The former Victorian premier said that was something he had never before been accused of and proceeded to explain how "furious" he had been by the AFL's "blindness" towards its Tasmanian supporters.

The AFL itself wouldn't even reveal the actual figure, merely stating that it was "contributing a six-figure sum" and declining to comment further.

But both the city council and State Government confirmed the amount of $200,000, ironically exactly what AFL chief operating officer Gillon McLachlan was allegedly talked out of announcing when he came to the stadium on April 24.

Along with $4 million from the feds, $2 million from the state, $500,000 from the council and $300,000 from the Hawks, the donation completes the funding jigsaw ... providing the scheme does not exceed estimates.

And as Mr Kennett stressed, the most welcome aspect of the AFL contribution was that it came as a grant with no strings attached.

What the conditions were surrounding the original offer have never been made public, but it is fair to assume they must have been substantial for the council to decline the offer.

Mr Kennett admitted he would rather the AFL had offered $500,000, but had announced a contribution from the Hawks because he was fed up with "delays, frustration and pettiness".

"Life is too short for that," he added.

He's right, but those traits are what enabled the AFL to deliver its punchline this week.