Gerard Whateley has weighed in on the ill-sentiment following the findings from the Carter report, believing that Tasmanians are overlooking the fact that they’re getting a team.
The report found that Tasmania has a viable case to support an AFL team, but a relocation or joint venture should be considered before a 19th license is handed out.
The major frustration out of the Apple Isle is that there is still no timeline on when Tasmania will be able to enter the league.
Whateley took a positive spin on the findings, choosing to focus on the fact that they are going to have a team in Tasmania.
“I read it and my heart was full, Tassie’s going to be in the AFL,” Whateley said on SEN's Crunch Time.
“There is no deal-breaker, this document says Tasmania will have its own team. Now let’s work out which one it is.
“This is what it looks like, if you come in (with a brand new team), you will forever be in the bottom third (financially).
“If you take a relocated team, then you come in in the middle and that’s the position that you’ll always hold. Then you skip over the painful and gruesome years that the Suns have experienced.
“I still think Tasmania is missing the fact that they’re getting a team. They are going to be in the AFL.”
SEN Chief Sports Reporter Sam Edmund was more scathing of the report than Whateley, choosing to focus on the fact that there is still no timeline for when this team might join the league.
“They’ve got no material to hang on to except words on a page that Gil McLachlan has offered no timeline to, which is the big thing that Peter Gutwein has wanted,” Edmund said.
“What was in the Carter report, they already knew was coming. It’s only validated what they already did in the Tasmanian task force report.
“They want something they can hang on to and they haven’t got it again.”
Edmund’s sentiment was shared by prominent Tasmanian journalists Brent Costello and Brett Stubbs who, although happy that a team is seen as viable, both lamented the lack of a timeline.
“We all expected some sort of timeline,” Costello said.
“The feeling here is that it is good news that Colin Carter has found that we should have a team but we thought we might have a bit of an idea of when it might be too.”
“It is a significant moment,” Stubbs added.
“We’ve now got a document done by the AFL that says a Tasmanian team is viable but the level of frustration is that we’re still no closer to knowing when we’re going to join the competition.”