AFL Tasmania CEO Trisha Squires plays down the need for its own AFL side in the state

AFL boss Gillon McLachlan appointed Squires to the position only a fortnight ago since Robert Auld simultaneously was promoted inside the Docklands head offices.

Critics have pointed to a lack of transparency and process in the appointments that do not give Tasmanians an independent voice among the AFL community.

Squires downplayed the decades-long debate that Tasmania needed an AFL team for the game to survive.

“This conversation [about a Tasmanian team in the AFL] does happen a lot, as you can imagine, and people do talk about it,” Squires told Melbourne’s SEN radio on Friday afternoon.

“I think it actually distracts us from the great things we have in regards to football.”

Squires believed the status quo split of AFL games – four in Launceston and a further three in Hobart each year – best serves the interests of football fans in Tasmania.

“I’m an advocate for what’s best for Tasmanian football and I can’t tell you right now what that is,” she said. “What I know is we want as much football content in the state.”

The State League enters its 2018 season without a North-West side after both Devonport and Burnie withdrew from the competition within six weeks of each other.

Grassroots clubs have also reported battling numbers to field sides that include Tamar Cats, possibly on the brink of extinction, after falling around 30 players short, forcing the NTFA to extend its deadline to affiliate.

But Squires is adamantly denying that the state’s game is dealing with a crisis.

“I don’t like to use the word crisis there,” she said.