Incoming AFL boss says a 19th club won't be seen for at least 10 years
TASMANIA won't be granted a licence to field its own AFL team within the next decade, incoming CEO Gillon McLachlan says.
Asked on Wednesday night whether he foresaw a 19th side being introduced into the competition within the next decade, McLachlan couldn't have been clearer.
The Hawks remain contracted to play four games a year in Launceston until the end of 2016, while North Melbourne is in its final season of a three-year deal to play two games a year in Hobart.
But the League boss-in-waiting said there wasn't enough playing talent across Australia to warrant another team being brought into the competition.
"I think it's 18 teams … we now have a national footprint broadly where we want," McLachlan said.
"There's a question of Tasmania [having a side] - I'm aware of that (but) I think we are at the limits of what the talent can sustain.
"I think we're at the limits, in most markets, of what's required – it feels right to me."
McLachlan said that although he didn't want a third Western Australian team or a new side based in Tasmania at this stage, he hoped that under his reign the AFL would be recognised as a "truly national" competition.
"It sounds simplistic but it means a national footprint, it means there's a new stadium in Western Australia, a new stadium in Tasmania, it means that every game in the ACT is full [and] Western Sydney," he said.
"It's getting back to a simplistic vision of consolidating an extraordinary period of investment and success under Andrew's tenure."