Tasmania will not field its own AFL team in the near future, but has been granted a provisional VFL licence for 2021.

AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan is in Hobart to release the findings of a three-month review into Tasmanian football, prompted by concerns about the future of the state league and diminishing talent pathways.

He confirmed the TSL will remain the premier competition in the state, and announced a return to the under-18 TAC Cup in 2019 and the VFL in 2021 to create new pathways for talented players.

He said all state teams would play under the same "Team Tasmania" banner, with a name to be decided by the public.

"Today is a step in the right direction, a clear plan that speaks to all levels of Tasmanian football with unprecedented funding," McLachlan said.

"This is an opportunity for Tasmania to unite to ensure all Tasmania's men, women, boys and girls have every opportunity to play football at all levels."

McLachlan said the AFL would spend an extra $1.4 million on Tasmanian football next year, and set up three administration hubs — in the state's north, north-west and south.

"I'm very confident in the TAC Cup team working in with the new talent pathways and working in with the community and TSL football," he said.

"The [VFL] licence is provisional because we need to establish a unified push for the VFL team — it needs unity, it needs to be sustainable and it needs the talent there to support it and that's the challenge of all of Tasmanian football."

McLachlan says the plan will ensure everyone who wants to play has a chance to. ( ABC News: Tony King )

McLachlan made no guarantees about the state having a standalone team in the national league.

"What we're trying to do is put the building blocks in place today," he said.

"I think that looks to the success of the next three or four or five years because right now Tasmanian football is fractured and fragmented.

"We need to deal with [those issues] and build the base and get a united Tasmanian football before Tasmania's really in a position to bid for a licence."

McLachlan said GWS and Gold Coast were established "for very different reasons". ( AAP: Rob Blakers )

He said the Greater Western Sydney and Gold Coast teams were built for "very different strategic reasons".

"Which was around growth in huge growing markets, and I've been really honest about that in the past," he said.

McLachlan would not comment on whether the Tasmanian Government should extend its multi-million-dollar sponsorship deals with Hawthorn and North Melbourne in 2021, when the state returns to the VFL.

"That's not been part of the brief and remit of this, we need to obviously in the next six months or so make decisions on that," he said.

'Slow dancing with sister' jibe

McLachlan was asked about criticism from North Launceston club president Thane Brady that the new deal for the TSL had "about as much joy as a slow dance with your sister".

"Thane's grumpy all the time, I think you guys know that," he said.

"I reckon he does a lot of slow dancing with his sister, so I don't know, he needs to get out a bit more."

"Sometimes the best you can hope for in my job is that everyone's equally unhappy."