FORMER Western Storm ruckman-forward Bart McCulloch has unloaded on AFL Tasmania, saying the demise of the club and the difficulties facing the Prospect Hawks licence can all be traced back to the wrong decision made two years ago when they denied South Launceston a TSL licence in their own right.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Sidelined with a knee injury since the middle of the season, McCulloch said he was frustrated and annoyed by what had happened since he and his South Launceston premiership teammates left the Bulldogs two years ago to join the new Storm franchise.
‘‘I will be pretty honest because I am pretty disappointed with the way things have panned out,’’ McCulloch said.
‘‘Not for any of the decisions the players have made – I completely understand why the Western Storm players have done what they have done.
‘‘But I am disappointed with what went on a couple of years ago. AFL Tas will try to say it was the right thing and they had no option, but it was absolutely the wrong option they made in relation to not offering South Lonnie a TSL licence in their own right.
‘‘I think they should have focused on South Launceston, who have members, past players, facilities and a good team on the park, but unfortunately there was a board that was light on in numbers.
‘‘So they should have spent a few months trying to recruit for the board and getting the club financially stable, and I think that would have been a much easier job to do than set a whole new club up.
‘‘I have said this to Shaun Young and Scott Wade and they still disagree and say South couldn’t have gone forward and didn’t want to be in the TSL.
‘‘Well South didn’t want to be in the TSL because AFL Tas said they could only have 50 per cent of the licence and South wanted to stay their own entity, which I completely understand, because they didn’t want to lose their identity.
‘‘If AFL Tas had gone to South and said ‘we will renew your licence but we want to get a good board in place’, then South would have said ‘great, let’s stay in the TSL and have our own identity’.
‘‘But South had to go back to the NTFA because they didn’t have that option.’’
¦ McCULLOCH’S FUTURE: Page 38
