AFL Tasmania confirmed a new governance model to TSL club presidents at a meeting at Campbell Town yesterday, which will see its board resign at next month's general meeting.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Chief executive Scott Wade will retain his position in charge of AFL Tasmania, reporting to executives at AFL headquarters in Melbourne instead of to a Tasmanian board of directors.
The change is designed to bring Tasmania in to line with other state models.
It is understood that the AFL's deputy chief executive Gillon McLachlan will visit the state in a couple of weeks time to make the official announcement.
Clubs had been kept in the dark about the proposed changes until the plan was exclusively revealed in The Examiner on Wednesday.
``Scott Wade gave a presentation at the meeting which was presented basically as business as usual with a simple governance change,'' North Launceston president Thane Brady said after the meeting.
``That this had been planned for a long time to bring us in line with other states and we should see it as a positive because effectively we now have a direct link to the executive of the AFL.''
It is believed that there were questions raised at the meeting about Wade's position and accountability under the new model.
``I just said along the lines that there will be a lot of people who will look at this and say ` they have shot the sheriff when they really should have shot the deputy','' Brady said.
Launceston president Malcolm Atkins described it as a positive meeting and said that the AFL Tasmania board which had helped set up the State League competition, had been mentors to the management team for the past few years.
``They haven't really made much in the way of decisions,'' he said.
``We now fall into line with Queensland, ACT, New South Wales and Victoria and have a direct link straight to the AFL leadership team because they don't have boards either and we were the odd ones out.''
AFL Tasmania general manager Shaun Young declined to comment on the specifics of the meeting.