Nathan Buckley will accept any offer to coach Tasmania’s AFL side, as the state’s planning commission says a proposed stadium should not be built.<\/p>\n
Buckley says he wants to coach the Devils, slated to enter the AFL in 2028, but the stadium remains a sticking point.<\/p>\n
Tasmania’s planning commission, in a report released on Wednesday, described the proposed roofed stadium at Macquarie Point as “monolithic” and a waste of money.<\/p>\n
The commission’s recommendation against building the stadium isn’t binding, and Tasmania’s premier Jeremy Rockliff vowed to continue to fight for the proposed AFL venue.<\/p>\n
The premier revealed the price tag for the stadium had again risen, from $945 million to $1.13 billion, but said the planning commission underestimated social and economic benefits.<\/p>\n
“I am not going to give up on this project,” Rockliff told reporters.<\/p>\n
“You cannot put a value on keeping young people in Tasmania and building hope and aspiration.”<\/p>\n
The AFL reiterated its position that the roofed stadium was a condition of the Devils joining the competition.<\/p>\n
Nathan Buckley is the favourite to be named Tasmania’s first AFL coach.\u00a0Robert Cianflone\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
“A clear component of the licence bid from the Tasmanian taskforce was a new roofed stadium at Macquarie Point with a capacity of at least 23,000,” the AFL said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“The AFL’s continued position is that this is a condition for the grant of the 19th licence.”<\/p>\n
Devils chief executive Brendon Gale held discussions with Buckley on Tuesday about the coaching position.<\/p>\n
Asked if he would accept an offer to be the inaugural coach, Buckley said: “The answer is yes.”<\/p>\n
“I am not sitting here saying like I assume that, expect that (Tasmania offer), this is all open spitballing,” Buckley told SEN radio.<\/p>\n
“But yeah, I’ve determined that I would love to coach again.<\/p>\n
“If Tassie feel like I am a fit, then I will be there.<\/p>\n
“But that is up to them to work out. And beyond that, if that doesn’t work out, then I go back to the drawing board.”<\/p>\n
Buckley was a candidate for Melbourne’s head coaching role, given to current Geelong assistant Steven King, but couldn’t commit given the prospect of joining Tasmania.<\/p>\n
But after meeting with Gale, he was super-keen to join the Devils.<\/p>\n
“It was good to have that chat and they will continue on their path and what they need to do as an organisation,” Buckley said.<\/p>\n
“And the senior coach is but one role that they’re looking to investigate and to fill.<\/p>\n
“And I am not sure on the timing on that at this point.”<\/p>\n
Asked what appeals about the job, Buckley replied: “What doesn’t?<\/p>\n
“It’s quite a unique challenge … you build something from scratch, I think it is attractive to be involved in something like that.<\/p>\n
“Tassie is unique … no matter who represents that state, it will be the state’s team, which is pretty unique.”<\/p>\n
Buckley said the new club was doing everything right in its formation.<\/p>\n
“I love their messaging at the moment, I think they’re getting everything right,” he said.<\/p>\n
“All they need to do is get that stadium over the line and the plans are in place, it’s ready to roll out, and I think the Devils will be a really strong part of what Tasmania becomes.<\/p>\n
“And I’d love to be a part of that.”<\/p>\n
The Devils recently announced development teams would enter the second-tier VFL and VFLW competitions next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nathan Buckley will accept any offer to coach Tasmania’s AFL side, as the state’s planning commission says a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-150818","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}