Strong measures to put Tasmania back on the Australian football map were revealed by the Australian Football League on Tuesday, according to Greg Denham of THE AUSTRALIAN. Tasmania will reintroduce a U18 team in the TAC Cup next season and has been granted a second-tier license to field a Victorian Football League team for '21. A TAC Cup women’s team has also been scheduled to participate from '20. AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan said that "apart from the additional representative state teams to play in the current mainland competitions," the league would also provide extra funding of A$1.4M ($1M) next year "following a review of the code in Tasmania." Financial support for the reintroduction of a VFL team, after the Tasmanian Devils "ceased to exist" at the end of '08, is "expected to come from state government funding and the business sector." The AFL will also create football administration hubs in the south, north and northwest of the state and "revamp talent pathways with the aim of addressing a slide in grassroots participation." The league will appoint regional talent managers in those three areas. However, McLachlan "hinted that a Tasmanian-based team in the AFL remained a long way off becoming a reality." He said, "I think that (depends on) the success of the next three or four or five years" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 7/4).
