WE’RE GAME

Clubs testing waters for matches in Tasmania

IT is not only the Roos and the Hawks looking to sell games to Tasmania.

Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein has revealed he has had approaches from rival clubs should deals with Hawthorn and North Melbourne to play games in Launceston and North Melbourne not be renewed after this season.

The current deals for eight games a year are worth $8 million combined but both are on hold while the state waits the outcome of Colin Carter’s review of Tasmania’s AFL business case for entry into the league. Mr Gutwein would not name the clubs, but in February

St Kilda expressed an interest in again playing home games in Tasmania “should an appropriate opportunity present itself.”

Mr Gutwein said the current deals were preferable but not the only options. “Others have reached out, I won’t name them, but there is obviously great interest,” Mr Gutwein said.

“The arrangement we have in place with Hawthorn and North Melbourne are good for the state in terms of our economy and tourism but they are also good for the clubs as well.

“But I would hope … that the arrangements, especially with Hawthorn over two decades, they have been good corporate citizens.

“They understand our aspirations for our own team and we’ve assisted them to reach their aspirations which have been while a corporate partner of ours a number of premierships.

“I would hope as we move forward that we could work together and as we exit this arrangement over time we would do so with dignity and with a demonstration of the goodwill that exists on both sides as we move towards achieving our own aspirations.”

He said he had reached out to Mr Carter, the former Geelong and AFL commissioner conducting the review on the league’s behalf.

He said he had invited him to Tasmania to discuss the state’s entry before the review’s completion next month.

“We’ve got a very good story to tell,” he said.

“It is going to be important we talk to him not only about the great facilities we already have and the opportunity for AFL football to be played here but it is important he gets a good understanding of where the state stands in terms of some of the fantastic assets that we’ve got like MONA, some of the great restaurants, some of the if I could call It the magnificent liveability of Tasmania. I think it is important that he has a good understanding of what it would mean for the players and those that would support a team were to be based here.”