azabob
07-06-2014, 12:15 PM
An AFL-backed report into the game's future in Tasmania has questioned Hawthorn's commitment to developing the code down south and concluded that the club has failed to capture ''the hearts and minds'' of the heartland state.
Professor Jonathan West, an international Tasmanian-based economist and academic, has urged the AFL to present football's ''sleeping giant'' state with a firm strategy which could see the Hawks commit to up to six home games across Launceston and Hobart beyond 2016.
West told The Saturday Age his recommendations would include privileged access to home-grown talent for a club prepared to put roots in the struggling state via a Sydney/Brisbane style development academy.
With new AFL boss Gillon McLachlan contemplating the political and football pitfalls of his preferred one-team model playing home games in both the north and south, West said his almost completed research has strongly backed that model despite current negotiations with North to sign a new two-year deal with Hobart's Blundstone Arena.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/failed-afl-report-says-of-hawthorns-tasmanian-push-20140606-zs08k.html#ixzz33uaUL44Z
http://www.watoday.com.au/afl/afl-news/failed-afl-report-says-of-hawthorns-tasmanian-push-20140606-zs08k.html
Professor Jonathan West, an international Tasmanian-based economist and academic, has urged the AFL to present football's ''sleeping giant'' state with a firm strategy which could see the Hawks commit to up to six home games across Launceston and Hobart beyond 2016.
West told The Saturday Age his recommendations would include privileged access to home-grown talent for a club prepared to put roots in the struggling state via a Sydney/Brisbane style development academy.
With new AFL boss Gillon McLachlan contemplating the political and football pitfalls of his preferred one-team model playing home games in both the north and south, West said his almost completed research has strongly backed that model despite current negotiations with North to sign a new two-year deal with Hobart's Blundstone Arena.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/failed-afl-report-says-of-hawthorns-tasmanian-push-20140606-zs08k.html#ixzz33uaUL44Z
http://www.watoday.com.au/afl/afl-news/failed-afl-report-says-of-hawthorns-tasmanian-push-20140606-zs08k.html