Glenorchy returns serve
Incensed president blasts AFL Tasmania
THE Glenorchy Football Club has unleashed a scathing return of serve on AFL Tasmania with the Magpies claiming the state’s governing football body is ‘jeopardising the future’ of the proud club.
Following reports Glenorchy had only 15 players at a recent training run and are in danger of being unable to field a senior men’s side in the TSL this season, interim president Scott Donaghy appeared on breakfast radio on Wednesday.
Speaking on Triple M Breakfast with Woody and Tubes, Donaghy didn’t hold back from the outset. “What we have at the moment is one really p***ed off president,” Donaghy began. “Our club is working extremely hard behind the scenes at the moment to make sure we field a team this year in the statewide league and we are trying to get two teams on the park.
“So what’s happening at the moment from my perspective is that AFL Tasmania are copping a little bit of flack on the sideline around the state team (AFL licence) and they’ve decided to throw us under the bus and take the flack off them to concentrate the media on the Glenorchy Football Club.
“I went and had what I thought was an honest and confidential discussion with AFL Tasmania and then parts of that stuff comes up in the media yesterday and we didn’t give them permission to release that information but they chose to talk about it and what they are doing is jeopardising our future.”
With coach Aaron Cornelius stating on January 12 that the club had 41 players contracted for the season, Donaghy
clarified the circumstances that saw them only have the reported 15 at training last week.
“This isn’t new news. Everyone knows we’ve been working hard. What they’ve done yesterday is just disgusting,” he said. “If we are going to look at the day, which was last Monday, there was a lot of people that couldn’t get anywhere because the bridges were down so is it little wonder we didn’t have everybody out on the training track.”
Board member Peter Barwick also backed up Donaghy’s statement when contacted by The Mercury and said it was just unfortunate circumstances that saw such a low number on the track.
“We’ve been floating between 26 to 30 players on any given night so it’s a shame that the night people have come to watch there is only 15 players and this is what has grabbed their attention,” Barwick said.
“There are a lot of great people working very hard at this club and we are confident we will field a senior side but we also want to comply with the licence and want to field a development league team.”
Following Donaghy’s attack, head of AFL Tasmania Damian Gill released a statement on Wednesday stating no confidential information had been made public despite Donaghy’s view.
“I want to be really clear – the assertion made this morning on radio that AFL Tasmania shared confidential information is incorrect and inaccurate,” the statement read. “Any suggestion that AFL Tasmania does not want any local club or league in our state to be strong is both incorrect and way off the mark.”