‘Small steps’ toward a team
AFL unveils hi-tech gadgets for close-call goals
AFL boss Gillon McLachlan agrees with Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon that Tasmania deserves its own AFL team and says the building blocks are in place to make it happen when the opportunity arises.
Mr Gordon said he believes the AFL should consider expanding to 19 or 20 teams, and Tasmania should get the first slot.
Mr McLachlan agreed the state should have its own team, but said it would not be in the next couple of years.
“I’ve said they deserve their own team before, and I think that’s a [popular view], it’s just challenging to get there,” he said. “I think the building blocks [are] in place.”
Speaking in Queensland yesterday, Mr McLachlan said it was “small steps” for the state.
“I think what we’ve been talking to them about is a unified ticket or group who want to lead and demand a presence on the national stage,” he said.
“We’ve got a statewide talent program now leading into a team back in the under-18s competition and there’s an aspiration to develop a team in the VFL.
“And if people then, when the leadership comes together to represent the state, put a membership group together and come behind that, I think that’s … [how they will] put real pressure on the AFL from the top.”
Tasmanian Football Board chair Jim Wilkinson welcomed Mr Gordon’s comments.
“He’s seen [the Bulldogs] at the lowest of ebbs, and also seen them after a premiership, so I think he’s in a great place to say whether, economically, you’re able to afford it or not, and it would seem to say, economically, the state can afford it,” Mr Wilkinson said.
“I think it does a lot of good for the cause, and the more support we can get from people like that, the better.
“I strongly believe [momentum is building], there seems to be more of a voice for us in recent times than there has been in the past.”
AFL Tasmania chief executive Trisha Squires said her focus was on strengthening the grassroots of the game and building baseline participation.
“We believe a strong underpinning football community is really important in any push,” Ms Squires said.
THE AFL will tomorrow night unveil new goalpost audio technology — known as AFL Edge — to help deliberate on contentious score reviews.
The league has been working on the innovative program for some time, with tomorrow night’s Richmond-Carlton game at the MCG the kick-off point that it hopes will provide greater certainty for players, coaches and supporters.
In a version not dissimilar to cricket’s “Snicko” mechanism, the use of the new technology for the AFL’s DrinkWise Score Review will see several microphones inserted into the two goalposts at either end of grounds at all category one and category two venues for the 2019 season.
It is understood those venues without goalpost cameras — including Shanghai, Cairns, Alice Springs and Darwin — will be the only ones without access to AFL Edge.
The audio from those microphones will be synchronised with the HawkEye video feeds and displayed as a “wave” form to determine whether the ball hit the post.
Goal review technology was introduced by the AFL for the 2012 season after several controversial incidents, including a Tom Hawkins “goal” in the 2009 grand final. And in last year’s Showdown Port coach Ken Hinkley was left furious after Crow Josh Jenkins’s matchwinning goal appeared to hit the post.
With the new technology, in instances where a player or players are in the vicinity of the goalpost and may have been responsible for the audio spike on the microphone, the Score Review Officer will determine whether the acoustic signal aligns with the football moving past the post. The padding on the goalposts and the technology of audio effects will allow microphones to mask most crowd sounds.