Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett and Fairfax football writer Caroline Wilson have fired barbs over the airwaves.

Wilson accused Kennett of playing “the man and not the ball” after he refused to defend accusations that the club took close to $4 million of Tasmanian taxpayers’ coffers but gave little in return.

“If they left Tasmania now, you could not say they left footy in Tasmania in better shape than they found it – they’ve left it in worse shape,” Wilson said on Melbourne’s 3AW radio. “Less grounds are being used, more grounds are being abandoned.

“Clubs are dying out of the competition and less players are being developed.”

Wilson argued that crowds have declined in Launceston, but the AFL club should still be pouring proceeds back into grassroots footy.

“He’s not even prepared to put his hand in his pocket to give these dying State League clubs any money,” she said.

Kennett barked back that the community relationship has “largely been lip service”.

“So Caro, I don’t know if she’s deprived of oxygen or what it is, but it’s uneducated and unprofessional what she said. It’s unadulterated, uneducated rubbish,” he said.