AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan has pledged to save struggling Tasmanian football from going under.
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He is responding to the state’s indignant fans whose common view is that Tasmania is ignored in favour of expansion in northern states, a vision to market the game in China and India and its insistent push of AFLX.
McLachlan will sit down with AFL Tasmania boss Trish Squires and Tasmanian premier Will Hodgman on Wednesday to discuss the state’s pressing issues.
“We have a view internally that part of that [vision] has to be fully-formed with the people on the ground,” McLachlan told Fox Footy.
“I’ll be going down there and talking to leaders, football people and do some media. We have a view about how we should be going forward over the coming weeks.”
The meetings came to a head after both Burnie and Devonport opted out of this season’s State League.
Under pressure in her first week in the job, taking over from Rob Auld, Squires read a statement out calling on McLachlan to visit Tasmania.
“The reality is we are committed to doing whatever it takes down there and it’s not all on us,” McLachlan said.
The reality is we are committed to doing whatever it takes down there
- AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan
“I can provide as much money as you want, but there is a two-way street here because there are structural changes in Tasmania.
“I am not trying to avoid our share of responsibility, but there is stuff that exists in Tasmania and there is stuff that we could be doing better or investing more.
“We’ll get to that and we can’t solve all of the issues down there, but we’ll make sure we’re doing everything we can to deal with some of the issues with the game.”
McLachlan was forthcoming in boasting of the AFL cash injection into Tasmania from his reign since 2014.
But he refused to accept it was a part of a period of neglect from AFL head office.
“Not in the last couple of years – I don’t want to talk before that, but we commissioned the Garlick report; that’s been in place for couple of years,” McLachlan said.
“We had about a 50-60 per cent increase in the investment down there and the numbers are encouraging.
“But it will take some time to catch up to where we need to be. Whether it was neglect or not enough investment or whatever you want to characterise it, it was certainly not from the last couple of years.”
Andrew Mathieson
The day I realised I wasn't good enough to play for St Kilda or be the No.1 spinner for Australia was when I realised journalism was the closest I could come to follow my passion for sport. And it's not just about the scores for me. It's the back story behind the game.
The day I realised I wasn't good enough to play for St Kilda or be the No.1 spinner for Australia was when I realised journalism was the closest I could come to follow my passion for sport. And it's not just about the scores for me. It's the back story behind the game.
