SHIFTING GOAL POSTS
Club presidents furious over two-faced AFL
JUST days after assurances that the TSL’s future was secure for the next five years, league presidents are dismayed by a list of demands by the AFL they say sets them up to fail.
State League officials are angry at a number of challenging key performance indicators set by AFL Tasmania which would allow it to terminate the league if just one of the seven clubs fails to meet all the criteria.
“I feel … shocked their position is so one-sided. Am I surprised? Probably not,” Tigers president Paul Gadomski said.
THE battle for the future of Tasmanian football appears set to explode with the TSL clubs rejecting all the AFL’s key performance indicators and believing the league is being set up to fail.
After Tuesday’s meeting, the clubs felt assured the future of the competition was set until the end of the current contract licence agreement in 2023, but they have been left feeling bewildered and betrayed by a list of demands from the AFL about the competition’s future. Included are: IF any one of the seven clubs does not meet one of the KPIs, all seven clubs will be deemed to have failed to meet the KPIs. REDUCTION of funding from $107,000 to $100,000. REMOVAL of videoing of games and, as a consequence, the match review panel.
REMOVAL of funding of buses for intrastate travel.
North Hobart president Craig Martin said if any of the KPIs were not met to AFL Tasmania’s satisfaction, then AFL Tasmania can terminate the competition past that season.
Mr Martin said all clubs were unified in rejecting the demands set by the AFL steering committee and AFL Tasmania.
“No-one would ever agree to these and it begs the question why would they be proposed?” Mr Martin said. “These conditions appear to us to want to make it very easy for the AFL to close down the TSL.”
Even if the competition continues, Mr Martin believes these changes would reduce the professionalism and competency of the league and the clubs.
The AFL’s game development manager, Rob Auld, the former AFL Tasmania chief executive officer who was promoted to AFL House in the middle of the state’s football crisis after the withdrawal of Devonport and a day before Burnie followed suit, has been negotiating the KPIs.
Tigers president Paul Gadomski said he felt like walking out once Mr Auld outlined the targets, but hoped they were simply starting points.
“There is no doubt from their perspective they think the investment into the TSL is a bad investment,” Mr Gadomski said.
“They are trying to make sure moving forward the money they invest truly goes to building the AFL brand down here and goes to nurturing juniors. At this point of time, the way I feel, I’m a little bit shocked their position is so one-sided.
“But I will say there is still a long way to go in this and although [Auld] said, ‘I want KPIs in two weeks and finalised by the end of June’, some of the arguments are going to push it way past that.”
Glenorchy president John McCann said the clubs were very supportive of getting young players drafted but was also for “a strong, viable, local competition that can underpin whatever else is happening”.
“You need something where players go back to a high-standard competition or we will be the only state without the equivalent of a state league competition and Tassie deserves better than that,” Mr McCann said.
An AFL spokesman said the steering committee would formally announce its findings by the end of this month.