Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell has given extensive interviews to both Herald Sun and The Age about his health nightmare in New York over the Christmas period. He was diagnosed with a âcocktailâ of issues, including Influenza A, parainfluenza, Superadded bacterial pneumonia, campylobacter gastroenteritis and several other issues, which had led to the beginnings of multi-organ failure.
Mitchell has fully recovered and is now working full-time again with the club.
The outcome of this state election could well determine the fate of the new Tasmanian team and the new stadium at Hobart. It was planned to unveil the teamâs nickname and logo on March 18.
I presume that the Tasmanian Liberal Government will still make the announcement, and will use it to give itâs campaign a boost if the election is held on March 23rd.
Wouldnât that go against the caretaker provisions of not making any major decisions whilst an election is in process?
Possibly, although it may depend if the AFL or the Tasmanian Government own the licence for the team, in which if itâs the former, they can still announce it.
That decision has already been finalised.
Not entirely. They want to use the Devils name and I think I read an article that they were still in talks with Warner Brothers.
From what I understand the team is its own entity now. They have a CEO and the board and have enough established to be able to run but receive funding from the AFL and the state government through this process. There should be no issue with them revealing it all and starting to sell memberships from the 18th and with the way things have gone so far Iâm expecting it to actually be quite a decent look and could quite possibly sway quite a few people at the last minute for the polls.
That is the case, but the AFL does own the licence for a number of clubs, not sure if it owns the Tasmanian licence though. Also, the AFL has imposed the condition that the new stadium be constructed, which if Labor gets elected (either in minatory, majority, or as a collation with independents), they could end the project, and thus put the team at risk.
After the interview finished, Sam revealed he spoken to five AFL clubs today, and the clubs said that if there would not be an agreement with the 18 clubs, if the stadium deal fell apart, or if there was any attempt to renegotiate the deal for a smaller amount of contribution from the state government.
It was a response to Tasmanian Labor leader Rebecca White, who said on ABC Radio Hobart this morning that if her party won the election, she would try to renegotiate the stadium deal with the AFL.
If it came right down to it I could see Labor putting their support behind what is being called Stadium 2.0 which is a plan put forward by former Labor Premier Paul Lennon and another guy. Itâs getting a lot of support from people but is also being seen as a diversion to get votes away from the Liberals too. Currently Labor is against any stadium as Rebecca White mentioned on the radio this morning but itâs so frustrating when Federal Labor gave the money for it and talked up the stadium. Just get it done!
Was also mentioned on 7News in Adelaide tonight that Rebecca White plans to re-negotiate the stadium condition if she became premier.
Jeremy Rockliff has pledged to cap Tasmaniaâs contribution to the AFL stadium at $375 million as his election campaign officially kicks off.
In a statement released on Thursday, the Premier said a re-elected majority Liberal government would cap capital expenditure on the $715 million Macquarie Point stadium at $375 million - and ânot one red cent moreâ.
The Premier said any shortfall of funds would be made up by the private sector.
So halving the cost of the stadium?
No, $715m price tag includes $200m from the federal government, $15m from the AFL and $85m borrowed against sale or leasing of the surrounding land as well.
As it happened last year with Ed Sheeran, part of the MCG turf will be replaced due to the recent Taylor Swift concert.
The process will begin tomorrow (Wednesday) and likely to take 12 days to replace the 12,000 square metres of grass. The task is larger than the 40% that was replaced last year.
Frontier Touring will foot the bill.
Melbourne player Joel Smith, who is already provisionally suspended after a positive drug test to cocaine last year, has been accused of trafficking or attempted trafficking the drug by Sports Integrity Australia.
Five months after Smith was notified of a positive cocaine test on match day, the AFL confirmed Sports Integrity Australia (SIA) had charged Smith with three anti-doping rule violations (ADRVs) of the Australian Football Anti-Doping Code over alleged âtrafficking or attempted traffickingâ of cocaine to third parties.
That is alleged to include his teammates, adding to a nightmare off-season for Melbourne, who have had their culture repeatedly questioned.
Brayshaw still has four years left in his six-year contract he signed back in 2022.
UPDATE: North Melbourne sacked player Tarryn Thomas this afternoon after he copped a 18-game ban from the AFL for inappropriate behaviour towards several women.