Jeremy Rockliff,Premier
Nic Street,Minister for Sport and Recreation
On behalf of the Tasmanian Liberal Government, we acknowledge the important work Gill McLachlan has done to help deliver AFL content to Tasmania and pursue a licence for a Tasmanian team.
Gill has made a significant contribution to the AFL and we wish him all the best for the future.
Following discussions between former Premier Peter Gutwein, the AFL and Mr McLachlan, we were able to reach an agreement on the timeframe for a decision on a Tasmanian AFL licence, with that historic decision due to be made in August this year.
The joint AFL and Tasmanian Licence Taskforce working group, which includes the support of four-time Premiership-winning master coach Alistair Clarkson, is currently finalising any matters raised in the Colin Carter Report ahead of that decision.
We saw strong crowd numbers at the 14 AFL matches in the State throughout the 2021 season, including the historic sell-out finals matches between Sydney and GWS, and Essendon and the Western Bulldogs at UTAS Stadium, and this would not have been achieved without our close working relationship with Mr McLachlan and AFL House.
As a Government, we want to ensure Tasmania finally gets our own AFL and AFLW teams in the national competition while ensuring we strengthen the base of football in Tasmania, and we will continue working closely with the AFL to achieve this.
We also look forward to working with Mr McLachlan’s successor on implementing Tasmania’s AFL vision, including plans for a multi-purpose stadium at Regatta Point.
Once again, we wish Mr McLachlan all the best with his future endeavours and thank him for working with us in the ongoing campaign for our own AFL team in Tasmania.
