Tasmania doesn’t have an AFL team and won’t for at least five years, but a huge name has put his hand up to coach if a license is granted.
A new Tasmanian team could have the best AFL coach this century at the helm, after Alastair Clarkson said he’d put his hand up to lead any new side.
The four-time premiership winner at Hawthorn knocked back offers to take charge of both Collingwood and Carlton recently, choosing a year off after 17 seasons’ leading the Hawks, with Sam Mitchell taking over from 2021.
A Tasmanian team could be as many as five or six years away, and that’s only if the AFL Commission decides to include the southern state, which has produced a long line of football superstars.
Clarkson, who said it was a “no-brainer” for the AFL to include a Tasmanian team, declared he would certainly like to be involved, which could include being the inaugural coach.
“It depends where I’m at and what I’m doing at that point in time, but yeah, without a doubt,” Clarkson said on Friday.
“If I was unemployed like I am now, I’d be putting my hand up big time to be involved in such an exciting venture.
“I think it’s a no-brainer for the AFL competition and it’s a no-brainer for Tassie to roll their sleeves up and get behind it.”
Launceston was a second home for Hawthorn during much of Clarkson’s tenure and the 53-year-old said the footballing “heartland” deserves a team and he would help take up the fight.
“I‘d like to do something for the industry and that includes perhaps doing some stuff for the Tassie push and their own team,” he told SEN.
“I‘ve got a really good affiliation with the Apple Isle.
“They’ve just fallen off the radar a little bit and the best way to get them back on the radar is to pursue this team from Tassie in the national competition, which I think will be really exciting.
“Let’s get a Tassie stand-alone team out of the Tassie market, but let’s take our time to build it up.”
The AFL has declared it will have a definite position on a Tasmanian licence by August next year and will talk to clubs about the timelines.
“We’ve got to reinvigorate footy down in Tasmania and it’s going to take a period of time to do that; we’ve got to get footy back into the schools, we’ve got to get the pathway program right,” Clarkson said.
“We want, in five or six years’ time, if that was the time that Tasmania came into the competition, we want to make sure the bulk of the players were heartland Tassie people.
“I genuinely believe that the national competition should be truly national and it’s not a national competition until Tassie are in it and, dare I say, until the Northern Territory are in it.”
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