A North Melbourne Australian Football League Women's team "could be launched into the national competition" as the Tasmanian Kangaroos in '19, should the club succeed in its bid to win an AFLW license, according to Caroline Wilson of THE AGE. In a "highly significant development for the battle over the game" in Tasmania, it emerged that the AFL and its state body are pushing the North Melbourne Kangaroos to "more strongly identify with the struggling heartland state" and that North is "open to the name change depending on the funding model." But AFL side Hawthorn has "thrown a curve ball" into the women's license bidding by "including a strong Tasmanian component in its presentation to be put to the AFL on Thursday." North Melbourne CEO Carl Dilena, whose club will also present to the AFL on Thursday, confirmed talks regarding the Tasmanian Kangaroos, adding that North's bid "involved not just an even split of games in Hobart and Launceston but a commitment to the development of women's talent across the state." North would play half its women's home games in Tasmania and the other half at Arden Street. The Hawthorn bid, which includes a plan to play some women's games at the Hawks' second home ground in Launceston, "comes at a highly sensitive time for the future of the game in Tasmania with the AFL working behind the scenes to endorse the Kangaroos as the league's only Tasmanian club" (THE AGE, 7/26).
