‘Financial suicide’: Jeff Kennett says the AFL couldn’t cope with a Tassie team

Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett has strongly disagreed with comments by Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon, who called for an expansion of the league, to include a stand-alone team in Tasmania.

Gordon told the Herald Sun the AFL should consider expanding to 19 or 20 teams.

Kennett told Tom Elliott while he respects Peter Gordon’s views, he doesn’t agree.

“To suggest 20 teams at the moment, is financially suicidal,” he said.

“It is just unsupportable.

“And as much as I would love Tassie to have a team, if you just look at the subsidies received by some teams, Brisbane got an extra $11 million to keep them operating in the year just passed, Gold Coast an extra $11 million, St Kilda an extra $8 million, even Peter’s team (the Western Bulldogs) got an extra $5 million.

“All money that could otherwise be spent on growing the game amongst juniors, in rural and regional Australia if we weren’t spending it on making sure the existing clubs are viable.”

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“I think the problem is the football season is a bit too long as it is,” Tom said.

“With 18 teams I think it would be better to have 17 rounds where every team plays each other once.”