The Tasmanian Taskforce has no plans to recommend entering the AFL in a hurry, taking a cautious approach to first repair relationships and building trust with a cynical football public the priority.
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Chairman Brett Godfrey said the state's bid to join the VFL next year will only be a small step towards the nod for a provisional AFL licence.
AFL Tasmania will submit an application next month for Tasmania Devils to join the Victorian competition.
"There's no date on it yet, but that's what the AFL were thinking," Godfrey said.
"Our concern is we're just over two months into a six-month piece of work.
"We'll just caution the AFL to 'listen, take a step back for a second' because we need to be on the same page."
AFL Tasmania has already instigated a Tasmania Devils NAB League under-18s program this year and will add a female team next season.
The serious AFL push for a Tasmanian club since the State Government's exhaustive failure in 2008 has picked up pace in the past week.
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TV commentator Dwayne Russell has tipped Tasmania will be the 19th team by 2023.
AFL recruiter and ex-Hawthorn star Gary Buckenara has called on the AFL to scrap the Gold Coast and hand its licence to Tasmania in 2024 should the Suns continue to be a "basket case".
The taskforce has started working on a financial model rather than a proposal based on a moral obligation so to assess whether an AFL side would be viable "because we don't want it to be a failure".
The cost of running a VFL side is around $2 million a year, well short of the $60 million to play in the AFL.
Godfrey said Tasmanians will be the final judge on a side being a part of the AFL.
That grassroots movement would also include the state's own VFL and AFLW sides playing in the North-West.
"We're still concerned with the Tasmanian people in terms of the relationship that is perceived and the perception is not positive with the AFL," Godfrey said.
"We just want the time to say is it the right timeframe or not because if this team fails, there will be people in Melbourne who'll say they can't even run a VFL team, so why give them the opportunity to screw up the AFL?"
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