Town talk: Alice Springs mayor flies to Melbourne to meet AFL executives

Alice Springs Mayor Matt Paterson flew to Melbourne for an in-person meeting with AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan and general manager of inclusion and social policy Tanya Hosch yesterday about his council’s continuing dispute with AFLNT over access to grounds.

Paterson went with ambitions to reopen the town’s Traeger Park to town teams and have the AFL push ahead with its signature round 16 Alice Springs match between Melbourne and GWS. He said any successful outcome would be contingent on AFLNT’s willingness to “come back to the drawing board and negotiate in good faith”, but told Crikey after the meeting he was confident Traeger Park access had been resolved.

“I would expect town teams to be playing at Traeger this week,” he said. “And the AFL match will continue, which is beneficial for everyone.”

Paterson said the ball now lies with the AFL, but was glad it was listening. 

In a statement to Crikey, the AFL said it had had productive discussions with Paterson and was committed to keeping the conversation going: “The AFL remains committed to seeking a solution for all levels of football in Alice Springs.”

The meeting comes after a tit-for-tat turned legal battle between the Alice Springs Town Council and the AFLNT over the council’s decision to press pause on community football. Traeger Park, home to both community and town league football, has been front and centre in the dispute.

To add to the noise, the AFL chimed in with threats to pull the pin on the Melbourne-GWS match.

At a local level, the top-down to and fro has been a source of great confusion for community teams and a serious spanner in the works for town football. Even as the season kicked off, training and matches were relocated hours before play to ovals with missing lights, no scoreboards and Auskick goals.

The meeting between Paterson and AFL executives was kept quiet until after the fact but Deputy Mayor Eli Melky said there was nothing to hide: “It’s not a matter of business being hidden. Matt is meeting with AFL officials, the details will be about community football, there’ll be a discussion, and then an outcome of some sort.”

Melky was clear that Paterson was not in a position to make a decision on behalf of the Alice Springs Town Council (any and all business must first go before council to be decided on as a group), but did not rule out decisions made by the AFL. 

“He’s going to have a meeting with the AFL and if there’s any business to come out of it he would need to bring that business back to us,” he said.

“He has the power to call an emergency meeting with four hours’ notice, and he can attend that meeting via phone, but we haven’t as a council given him authority to make a decision on anything. All the mayor can do is say: ‘I can put that to council.’”

After the meeting, Melky confirmed that all elected council members had received a brief from Paterson about his meeting with AFL executives, but no council meeting had been called.

“The brief reported a positive meeting and we look forward to working with AFL and AFLNT on a positive outcome,” Melky said.