World Footy News

Melbourne newspaper the Herald Sun this morning reported that AFL chief Andrew Demetriou has raised the prospect of the next stage of expansion to include clubs in Tasmania and either North Queensland or a third Western Australian AFL club.

Speaking at a Latrobe University alumni function last night, Demetriou said "if we were to have another team down the track you would have to say that Tasmania is the logical place for that team to be - and we have expressed that view to the Tasmanian Government."

"Beyond that, if we were to go to 20 teams and who knows, that may or may not happen, you'd have to think it wouldn't be a team in Melbourne because we've got 10."

"But a place like Western Australia, which is a booming state, or even northern Queensland, are the two places that have some attraction."

While the prospect of an AFL club in Tasmania, a state with a relatively small but traditionally footy-mad population, is sure to please many football fans, a move to 20 clubs anytime in the future has raised discussion of how far the talent pool can be stretched.

For international footy followers, more clubs could potentially open the way for more recruitment of non-Australian based talent. A North Queensland club, based in Townsville or Cairns, could be ideally located for tapping into the growing footy community in PNG and the Pacific Islands, with Cairns having already played host to a match between a young Oceania side and a Queensland representative team earlier this year.

For more, visit the original article Tassie gets a guernsey in Demetriou's vision for the future.