WILL KICKS IN
Premier and Tassie footy chiefs map future
THE State Government is teaming up with Tasmanian football leagues and clubs to tackle the drastic fall in participation and push for an AFL team.
Premier Will Hodgman and Treasurer Peter Gutwein met with five of the seven TSL presidents, TFC and NTFA presi- dent Paul Reynolds, NWFL president Andrew Richardson and SFL president Madeleine Ogilvie and vice-president Kyron Johnson in Hobart without representation from the AFL or AFL Tasmania.
The meeting produced two unanimous outcomes — improving grassroots football and establishing a pathway to a Tasmanian AFL team.
“The Tasmanian football community is determined to define its own future and present a united Tasmanian plan for football to the AFL,” a statement from the group said.
The group will now collaborate on a preferred model to strengthen the base of grassroots football, which is our foundation across every region of Tasmania.
It will also work together on a preferred pathway to the ultimate goal of having a Tasmanian AFL team.
“As a state, we are loyal supporters of footy and we are all of the view that it is time that the future of football in Tasmania was decided by Tasmanians,” the statement said.
“That support should not start and end with our elite, or talent pathways. It must include all football pathways — boys and girls who just want a kick with their mates on a Saturday to our regions where footy is the backbone of the community — to our ultimate goal of seeing a Tasmanian team in the national competition.”
The Mercury revealed last week a drop of 14.7 per cent in male participation from 2006-2017, including an alarming 22 per cent decline in 13-18year-old boys during the same period.
It is understood Tasmanian stakeholders and the Government do not believe a solution to participation issues was addressed last week when AFL chief executive Gill McLachlan announced the steering committee’s solution to the state’s footy crisis.
Meanwhile, the AFL’s national talent competitions manager Marcus Ashcroft, who was part of the team that returned Tasmania to the TAC Cup competition full-time, said a football manager for the under-18s was the first task to complete, followed by a coach.
One name being mentioned in Melbourne as a possible football manager is Tasmanian and former Fitzroy and Adelaide coach Robert Shaw.
Shaw is also a close friend of Allies coach, former Geelong, St Kilda, Brisbane and Fremantle onballer Adrian Fletcher, another Tasmanian, mooted as the team’s first coach.
“The person we are looking for is a footy manager,” Ash- croft said. “We will put down a position description for those two roles in the next couple of weeks.
“Once we do that we’ll put it to market and give everyone a chance to apply if they think they are worthy of that role.”
One of the key roles for the manager will be to work with and co-ordinate the regional talent managers — Mathew Armstrong (South), Darren Travena (North) and a yet to be confirmed North-West manager. Tasmanians would be selected for the Allies team to play in the national championships from the TAC Cup, with the state to withdraw from the academy series against the likes of the Sydney Swans, Brisbane Lions, GWS and Gold Coast academies.
“For Tassie specifically this is an upgrade for them,” he said.