SEN’s Crunch Time discusses all the big issues coming out of Friday night and looking forward to the weekend.
The first cab off the rank for Saturday’s panel of Sam Edmund, Luke Hodge, Mark Maclure and Cal Twomey was Prime Minister’s Anthony Albanese announcement of $240 million in funding for a new stadium in Hobart.
An AFL licence is expected to be granted for the state in the coming days.
Luke Hodge
“I’m rapt for the people of Tasmania. I’ve been lucky enough to play down there since I was drafted in 2001 and realised how big AFL is down there,” he began.
“Every time we went down there the support was amazing. They were always keen for their own team but it looked like for a long time that was never going to happen until four or five years ago.
“You heard a lot of rumours over the last few years… then the stadium had to be a part of it. For Tasmania to finally get what they wanted and get a commitment, there’s going to be some pretty happy people down south this morning.”
Mark Maclure
“It’s a fantastic day for football. All of a sudden they’ll end up going up to Darwin at some stage and doing it there as well.
“It’s a beautiful spot, it’s an A-grade spot.
“To me, I think it’s a great thing. But how are we going to do this? Are we going to give them players like they did at the Brisbane Bears?
“How are they going to build this club?”
Cal Twomey
“They’ve been built behind the scenes across the last couple of years, this has been no surprise to list managers and to the AFL to get this process underway.
“It’s not coming out of the blue and out of nothing. It also gives them an advantage to be the same hierarchy and administration that saw in the last two licences in GWS and Gold Coats, the things that worked and the things that didn’t.
“Clubs are aware and clubs have been told that the AFL wants them to be competitive pretty early on, so that will definitely shape what concessions they are given. You can expect they’ll be given some early picks across a number of years but with caveats to having to trade them for high-quality players or senior players so they didn’t enter the competition and struggle from the early days
“The hardest bit actually is going to be attracting players… and getting them to sign on the bottom line.
“The Suns and the Giants both had a lot of money and a lot of opportunity but weren’t able to – in a lot of circumstances – land those big deals, apart from probably Gary Ablett.”
Sam Edmund
“It’s one of the all-time great deals, really. A $715m stadium which the AFL’s contributing two per cent.
“It’s an outstanding deal, spectacular deal. It would take a two-thirds majority of the presidents to vote it down.
“That’s not going to happen, but the AFL would like total consensus, if they can get it.”