North Melbourne look certain to win the right to develop talent across Tasmania as the AFL completes its national carve-up of zoned Indigenous and multicultural academies.
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In a significant fillip for the Kangaroos and a move certain to be applauded by AFL Tasmania, the league has chosen a one-club model for its newest development frontier despite Hawthorn pushing to set up an academy around the Launceston region.
The decision cannot be ratified until the Kangaroos complete a new five-year, 15-game agreement with Hobart's Blundstone Arena, a deal expected to be announced when North contest their first home game in Tasmania in round three. But the Hawks are understood to be resigned to running academies in their zoned regions along Melbourne's eastern corridor and around Katherine in the Northern Territory.
Hawthorn put a submission to the AFL requesting a strong presence in Tasmania with their own academy, pointing out the club had spent 15 years promoting the game and working with community football around Launceston and across the state.
A recently completed report into Australian rules football in Tasmania reportedly recommends "an AFL academy" in the state which remains bitterly divided in football terms between north and south. No club was singled out in the document but the AFL-North decision has been seen as one small step towards unifying the state's football regions.
The 60-page report completed by former Bulldogs chief Simon Garlick is before that state's government. The report also makes a strong case for women's football.
More significant for the Kangaroos is that a one-team academy model has won strong bipartisan support in Tasmania's Parliament. Both political leaders have stated that Tasmania needs an AFL academy developing all the young talent – not just Indigenous and multicultural talent.
AFL Tasmania boss Scott Wade confirmed his body had advocated passionately that the AFL not split the state in two when implementing the new zoned club academy model. However the highly sensitive topic of the unification of football across the divided state saw both the AFL and North Melbourne tightlipped on Thursday regarding any potential decision.
The Hawks will receive an estimated $3.8million this year from the Tasmanian government to contest four home-and-away games at Aurora Stadium, where they kicked off their NAB Challenge campaign on Thursday night. A new five-year agreement begins in 2017.
The Kangaroos' three-game annual deal is worth an estimated $1.8million, with the government-owned Spirit of Tasmania currently negotiating the new agreement with the club.
