Apple Isle Showdown: Tas Govt threatens to end Hawks, North deals if no plan for 19th side

[HPKS]

Now don't be nasty.

BF is better than that.

 

[Back One Out]

the Tassie team wont have a vanilla flavour to it...
the harder the Tassie govt have to fight for it, the more the edge will be there at games.
"Bring back the map"

View attachment 1098571

That would be my suggestion for their nickname if they get a team


____________Tassie Maps

Or maybe the Tassie Gunns in honour of the now-defunct local employer who did so much for the state.

 

[Tasmanian saint]

Gutwein just won Tasmanian election have a feeling Gill was hoping for a different result

 

[Professor Knowall]

Gutwein just won Tasmanian election have a feeling Gill was hoping for a different result

I'm not so sure about that, given the present agreement between the AFL and Gutwein for Colin Carter to review the
bid - an important factor that's been largely ignored in this hyperbolic thread. Colin Carter, who authored the the "Carter Report" that led to the AFL investing so much to grow the game in NSW and Qld, has always been a pro-expansionist with a national outlook, who wants to see our game at the forefront nationally.

I'm certain Carter, given his beliefs, is reviewing the bid more on the positive basis of how a Tassie team can be viable, rather than on a negative outlook of why it can't - and Gil and Gutwein both, of course, would well know his background and pro-expansion views. I expect Carter to offer support to the viability of an AFL club, but it might be conditional on certain governments commitments (e.g. stadium upgrades, sponsorship). I suspect Gil would see Gutwein, given his strong demands for Tassie to have its own AFL club, as being the person who would be likely to offer the most Gov't support should the AFL give a conditional "yes" to his demand.

BTW - I had my first visit to Tassie for some years last week, to both north and south. Things are really booming down there now - especially (though not exclusively) in Hobart.

 

[Financialpanther]

I'm not so sure about that, given the present agreement between the AFL and Gutwein for Colin Carter to review the
bid - an important factor that's been largely ignored in this hyperbolic thread. Colin Carter, who authored the the "Carter Report" that led to the AFL investing so much to grow the game in NSW and Qld, has always been a pro-expansionist with a national outlook, who wants to see our game at the forefront nationally.

I'm certain Carter, given his beliefs, is reviewing the bid more on the positive basis of how a Tassie team can be viable, rather than on a negative outlook of why it can't - and Gil and Gutwein both, of course, would well know his background and pro-expansion views. I expect Carter to offer support to the viability of an AFL club, but it might be conditional on certain governments commitments (e.g. stadium upgrades, sponsorship). I suspect Gil would see Gutwein, given his strong demands for Tassie to have its own AFL club, as being the person who would be likely to offer the most Gov't support should the AFL give a conditional "yes" to his demand.

BTW - I had my first visit to Tassie for some years last week, to both north and south. Things are really booming down there now - especially (though not exclusively) in Hobart.

Now the election is done - this issue will go remarkably quiet unless their is a scandal in government in need of a distraction.

 

[madmug]

Now the election is done - this issue will go remarkably quiet unless their is a scandal in government in need of a distraction.

Why do you think that? Its currently all about waiting for the Carter report.

Then we we will shall see.

In so far as Government scandal, Gutwein would be praying that Fatty Brooks doesn't get the 3rd seat in Braddon.

That slug is in real trouble. He clearly learned nothing from his last suspect efforts.

 

[Pessimistic]

I'm not so sure about that, given the present agreement between the AFL and Gutwein for Colin Carter to review the
bid - an important factor that's been largely ignored in this hyperbolic thread. Colin Carter, who authored the the "Carter Report" that led to the AFL investing so much to grow the game in NSW and Qld, has always been a pro-expansionist with a national outlook, who wants to see our game at the forefront nationally.

I'm certain Carter, given his beliefs, is reviewing the bid more on the positive basis of how a Tassie team can be viable, rather than on a negative outlook of why it can't - and Gil and Gutwein both, of course, would well know his background and pro-expansion views. I expect Carter to offer support to the viability of an AFL club, but it might be conditional on certain governments commitments (e.g. stadium upgrades, sponsorship). I suspect Gil would see Gutwein, given his strong demands for Tassie to have its own AFL club, as being the person who would be likely to offer the most Gov't support should the AFL give a conditional "yes" to his demand.

BTW - I had my first visit to Tassie for some years last week, to both north and south. Things are really booming down there now - especially (though not exclusively) in Hobart.

oh so good coast and western Sydney was ‘viable’? That was a fantasy at the time

 

[Professor Knowall]

oh so good coast and western Sydney was ‘viable’? That was a fantasy at the time

You should try reading the report - it clearly stated neither club should expect to be profitable for the first 20 years - but would be the catalyst for a big increase in grassroots partipation and clubs in those areas (which is clearly happening - the "generational change"). In the case of Tasmania, at least it has the advantage of already being a predominately AF state, despite the AFL mismanagement of the states footy over the last 20 years.

 

[BringBackTorps]

Graham Cornes, SA legend, several months ago, on his Adelaide 5AA radio program, accurately described the state of AF in Tasmania, & its neglect by the AFL, as a "national disgrace"- harsher words could have been used, but are not allowed on radio. He also recently said "The pressure, the rage, must be maintained".

In the last week, SEN Melb.'s G. Whateley has said the (non-player wage) Football Dept. cap should not include the Head Coach salary, so Head Coaches can & should be paid more- "let the market decide"- & consideration should be given to raising the general cap.
P. Dangerfield publicly supported his views on SEN.

The greed of the overpaid Not-For-Profit (ie an organisation legally categorised as, primarily, to benefit the community- so is afforded the privilege of not paying tax on any profits, Land Tax, or property Rates) AFL executives, & others in the "Football Industry", is sickening. They have abrogated their responsibility to the game.

Tas. was once a goldmine for VFL/AFL recruitment- with respect & proper funding, the pantheon of champions & stars can be revived.

GR male soccer & male basketball comp. nos. are booming in Tas.; Tas. elite GR, & Stat cricket, do fairly well- & Tas. Test cricket players are prominent: all cricketers are "punching above their weight", cf other States.
The naysayers to a Tas. 19th team conveniently ignore these 5 facts.




"Urgent help required to save ‘sick’ Tasmanian football, say those on the frontline
Brett Stubbs, Mercury
May 13, 2021 9:09am
Subscriber only

FOOTBALL is on its sick bed and the demise of the TSL will send the game back a decade, say those at the coalface.
Three TSL coaches have raised concerns over the plight of the game following North Hobart president Craig Martin raising doubts on the future of the code in Tasmania without urgent funding increases and a vision for the future. (see his Talking Point below)

The TSL has licence agreements with AFL Tasmania until 2023, but if the AFL pulls the pin on the competition, it must give 12 months notice to participating clubs – meaning a decision could be made next season.

Jeromey Webberley (Clarence), Paul Kennedy (Glenorchy) and Daniel Willing (Lauderdale) all raised concerns over the decline participation and the flow-on that would affect senior football.
Webberley was clear in how desperate the situation was.

“The game is sick at the moment and we can talk about an AFL team and what the TSL looks like, but if we don’t fix underneath, it doesn’t matter what’s on top,” he said.
“We could drop an AFL team here in five years, it is not going to fix participation because it will be gone.”

Roos coach Jeromey Webberley. Picture Eddie Safarik

Head of AFL Tasmania Damian Gill said official figures showed participation had actually grown the past five years with 2021 on track to meet or exceed pre-COVID numbers.

“We acknowledge there are challenges and concerns from parts of community football, including but not limited to the distribution of players across clubs and competitions,” Gill said.
“It is important we look at the landscape holistically and consult deeply.
“The best structure for Tasmanian community football in the future is something we are looking closely at, with more to be communicated soon.”

Willing backed Martin’s call for an urgent lift in the TSL salary cap from $80,000 to retain the best players and attract former AFL and VFL players while Kennedy said the end of the women’s state league, the TSLW, was a warning sign for what could happen in the men’s league with players lost due to the switch back to regional football.

“If you don’t have a state competition … you have mediocrity,” Kennedy said.
“We’ve seen that in the women’s competition this year.
“If we went down that track on the TSL side of things we would just be putting Tasmanian footy back again for a decade.
“We’d be having the same thing that happened through the 2000s and then we would have to have the same process of lifting it up.”

Glenorchy coach Paul Kennedy. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

He said the loss of youth-age footballers – those aged 13 to 18 – in Tasmania was above that compared to other states.
“Footy is not just about the ones who get drafted to the AFL,” he said.
“It is about all these kids who get involved and how it helps them become good young men and women and the lessons they learn and the adolescent years are the huge ones.
“We are failing them by not having the right aspirational model for kids at that age group and now we are seeing the result of it at senior footy because that failure has been there for a long time now.”
brett.stubbs@news.com.au


HOW CAN WE SAVE FOOTBALL IN TASSIE?
Aussie rules football in Tasmania is in a desperate state and needs an urgent and extensive overhaul — including a Tasmanian team in the AFL, argues CRAIG MARTIN.

ON page 21 of the excellent AFL Taskforce report is a section entitled A Game Under Threat.
I have been involved in footy all my life in Tasmania and I have never seen the game that we love in this state at such a crossroads moment like now.
First and foremost, what is the plan, the vision for the game here? What is the strategic direction for footy in Tasmania? There isn’t any.

The plan for the future must be for a home-grown Tasmanian AFL team with its own talent academy, underpinned by a strong, well-resourced Tasmanian State or Premier League that includes a team from one of the great footy heartlands, the North-West Coast, and greater autonomy in decision-making about the game by Tasmanians for Tasmania.
An AFL team will rekindle interest in footy in the state and give us direction. It will also pay healthy dividends into community footy.
An AFL team will deliver sustainable growth in participation, which is what has happened in Western Sydney and South-East Queensland with the advent of GWS and the Gold Coast Suns – teams to which the AFL has contributed tens of millions of dollars.

It will unquestionably help to address the significant decline of boys and young men participating in football in the state over the past 10-15 years.
Between 2006 and 2017 there was a drop of 14.7 per cent in males playing the game in Tasmania.
Most alarming was a 22 per cent drop in males aged 13-18 playing the game — critical ages because these ages are the conduit between junior and senior football. This was during a period where in all other football states male participation grew between 5 and 20 per cent. (Source AFL Tasmania Junior/Youth Football Review 2017 and published in the Mercury in July 2018).

The number of players in junior Aussie Rules competitions in Tasmania has been falling in recent years. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

Such has been the decline in male participation and the lack of direction and engagement from the game’s governing body here, that in pursuing a Tasmanian AFL team the Tasmanian government in 2019 put in place its own body — the Tasmanian Football Board — to address these issues.

Tasmania is about to get a national basketball team which poses another threat to participation and interest in football in the state.

When we do have our own AFL team we should aspire to a similar model to football in South Australia where the State’s premier football competition, the SANFL, underpins the two AFL teams and the game is run by a nine-person independent commission (currently chaired by Rob Kerin a former Premier of SA) on behalf of the SANFL clubs and all South Australian community and junior football.
It works very well, and I believe the Tasmanian Football Board could become such a body.

Tasmanian State League (TSL) clubs have had their funding cut by about 40 per cent in 2021 (our licence agreement stipulates $110,000 and we will receive $60,000 this year) and we have not been provided with any surety of funding beyond 2023 or any guarantees that the TSL will continue beyond the expiration of the current licence agreement, which ends at the end of 2023.
How can we plan for the future if we don’t know how much funding we’ll receive and what competition we are playing in?

The TSL salary cap of $80,000 is “a joke” in comparison to other states’ premier footy competitions. Picture: Zak Simmonds

AFL Tasmania also decided that the TSL salary cap would be reduced in 2021 from $95,000 to $80,000 despite all clubs except one saying they didn’t want it reduced.
In South Australia and Western Australia, their premier competitions have salary caps of $210,000 and $200,000 respectively for 2021. And these caps were cut considerably due to COVID. West Australian clubs are now lobbying for their cap to be lifted to $500,000.
In comparison, the TSL salary cap of $80,000 is a joke.

In South Australia and Western Australia, all the best players not playing in the two AFL teams play in their premier football competition.
Is it any wonder they are getting heaps of kids drafted? It’s because their best young players are playing against men each week who can seriously play!
This has not been the case here. It was 30 years ago, but not now.
A well-resourced state league like the SANFL would also address the considerable drain of talented young players from Tasmania to other competitions on the mainland and see more Tasmanians drafted.
It will also attract good quality players from the mainland improving the standard of local footy.

Footy in Tasmania needs an urgent and radical reset if it is to prosper and grow. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

We’ve lost players to the SANFL and other mainland competitions and it’s heartbreaking and symptomatic of the decline and lack of ambition and vision for the game here. TSL teams are also struggling to retain players — many of whom are poached while still under contract — by lower-level competitions that offer more money and have no salary cap and no policing of their player payments.

This was raised as a major issue by TSL clubs in 2018 and is now finally being addressed by the Tasmanian Football Board, AFL Tasmania and all the leagues and associations in Tasmania, which is welcome. However, it needs to be properly policed, and the salary caps need to clearly differentiate the TSL from the competitions that sit below it.

As well as being top of the pay scale, an annual opportunity for TSL players to represent the state would also greatly assist in differentiating the product as would income protection insurance. For footy to prosper and grow, the game needs an urgent and radical reset, and the reset must start with:

A STRATEGIC plan and vision for the game in the state created with input from all key footy stakeholders.

A TASMANIAN AFL team with its own talent academy

A PROPERLY resourced statewide or premier league with North-West Coast representation and a decent salary cap of at least $200,000.SALARY caps for lower-level competitions well below that and properly policed.

A GOVERNANCE model for administration of the game in Tasmania that gives us more autonomy and say on the future direction of the game here. This will require investment from the state government, the AFL and dividends from our AFL team flowing into footy at all levels in the state If the above occurs, the game here will prosper and be revitalised, and we will see more talented Tasmanians drafted to the AFL. We simply cannot keep going the way we are.

Craig Martin is President of the North Hobart Football Club. He was also the executive director of Sport and Recreation in Tasmania for more than seven years".

 

[sherb]

Graeme Cornes, SA legend, several months ago, described the state of AF in Tasmania, & its neglect by the AFL, as a "national disgrace- harsher words could have been used.

In the last week, SEN Melb.'s G. Whateley has said the (non-player wage) Football Dept. cap should not include the Head Coach salary, so Head Coaches can be paid more- "let the market decide"- & consideration should be given to raising the general cap.
P. Dangerfield publicly supported his views on SEN.

The greed of AFL executives, & others in the "Football Industry" is sickening.

"Urgent help required to save ‘sick’ Tasmanian football, say those on the frontline
Brett Stubbs, Mercury
May 13, 2021 9:09am
Subscriber only

FOOTBALL is on its sick bed and the demise of the TSL will send the game back a decade, say those at the coalface.
Three TSL coaches have raised concerns over the plight of the game following North Hobart president Craig Martin raising doubts on the future of the code in Tasmania without urgent funding increases and a vision for the future. (see his Talking Point below)

The TSL has licence agreements with AFL Tasmania until 2023, but if the AFL pulls the pin on the competition, it must give 12 months notice to participating clubs – meaning a decision could be made next season.

Jeromey Webberley (Clarence), Paul Kennedy (Glenorchy) and Daniel Willing (Lauderdale) all raised concerns over the decline participation and the flow-on that would affect senior football.
Webberley was clear in how desperate the situation was.

“The game is sick at the moment and we can talk about an AFL team and what the TSL looks like, but if we don’t fix underneath, it doesn’t matter what’s on top,” he said.
“We could drop an AFL team here in five years, it is not going to fix participation because it will be gone.”

Roos coach Jeromey Webberley. Picture Eddie Safarik

Head of AFL Tasmania Damian Gill said official figures showed participation had actually grown the past five years with 2021 on track to meet or exceed pre-COVID numbers.

“We acknowledge there are challenges and concerns from parts of community football, including but not limited to the distribution of players across clubs and competitions,” Gill said.
“It is important we look at the landscape holistically and consult deeply.
“The best structure for Tasmanian community football in the future is something we are looking closely at, with more to be communicated soon.”

Willing backed Martin’s call for an urgent lift in the TSL salary cap from $80,000 to retain the best players and attract former AFL and VFL players while Kennedy said the end of the women’s state league, the TSLW, was a warning sign for what could happen in the men’s league with players lost due to the switch back to regional football.

“If you don’t have a state competition … you have mediocrity,” Kennedy said.
“We’ve seen that in the women’s competition this year.
“If we went down that track on the TSL side of things we would just be putting Tasmanian footy back again for a decade.
“We’d be having the same thing that happened through the 2000s and then we would have to have the same process of lifting it up.”

Glenorchy coach Paul Kennedy. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

He said the loss of youth-age footballers – those aged 13 to 18 – in Tasmania was above that compared to other states.
“Footy is not just about the ones who get drafted to the AFL,” he said.
“It is about all these kids who get involved and how it helps them become good young men and women and the lessons they learn and the adolescent years are the huge ones.
“We are failing them by not having the right aspirational model for kids at that age group and now we are seeing the result of it at senior footy because that failure has been there for a long time now.”
brett.stubbs@news.com.au


HOW CAN WE SAVE FOOTBALL IN TASSIE?
Aussie rules football in Tasmania is in a desperate state and needs an urgent and extensive overhaul — including a Tasmanian team in the AFL, argues CRAIG MARTIN.

ON page 21 of the excellent AFL Taskforce report is a section entitled A Game Under Threat.
I have been involved in footy all my life in Tasmania and I have never seen the game that we love in this state at such a crossroads moment like now.
First and foremost, what is the plan, the vision for the game here? What is the strategic direction for footy in Tasmania? There isn’t any.

The plan for the future must be for a home-grown Tasmanian AFL team with its own talent academy, underpinned by a strong, well-resourced Tasmanian State or Premier League that includes a team from one of the great footy heartlands, the North-West Coast, and greater autonomy in decision-making about the game by Tasmanians for Tasmania.
An AFL team will rekindle interest in footy in the state and give us direction. It will also pay healthy dividends into community footy.
An AFL team will deliver sustainable growth in participation, which is what has happened in Western Sydney and South-East Queensland with the advent of GWS and the Gold Coast Suns – teams to which the AFL has contributed tens of millions of dollars.

It will unquestionably help to address the significant decline of boys and young men participating in football in the state over the past 10-15 years.
Between 2006 and 2017 there was a drop of 14.7 per cent in males playing the game in Tasmania.
Most alarming was a 22 per cent drop in males aged 13-18 playing the game — critical ages because these ages are the conduit between junior and senior football. This was during a period where in all other football states male participation grew between 5 and 20 per cent. (Source AFL Tasmania Junior/Youth Football Review 2017 and published in the Mercury in July 2018).

The number of players in junior Aussie Rules competitions in Tasmania has been falling in recent years. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

Such has been the decline in male participation and the lack of direction and engagement from the game’s governing body here, that in pursuing a Tasmanian AFL team the Tasmanian government in 2019 put in place its own body — the Tasmanian Football Board — to address these issues.

Tasmania is about to get a national basketball team which poses another threat to participation and interest in football in the state.

When we do have our own AFL team we should aspire to a similar model to football in South Australia where the State’s premier football competition, the SANFL, underpins the two AFL teams and the game is run by a nine-person independent commission (currently chaired by Rob Kerin a former Premier of SA) on behalf of the SANFL clubs and all South Australian community and junior football.
It works very well, and I believe the Tasmanian Football Board could become such a body.

Tasmanian State League (TSL) clubs have had their funding cut by about 40 per cent in 2021 (our licence agreement stipulates $110,000 and we will receive $60,000 this year) and we have not been provided with any surety of funding beyond 2023 or any guarantees that the TSL will continue beyond the expiration of the current licence agreement, which ends at the end of 2023.
How can we plan for the future if we don’t know how much funding we’ll receive and what competition we are playing in?

The TSL salary cap of $80,000 is “a joke” in comparison to other states’ premier footy competitions. Picture: Zak Simmonds
AFL Tasmania also decided that the TSL salary cap would be reduced in 2021 from $95,000 to $80,000 despite all clubs except one saying they didn’t want it reduced.
In South Australia and Western Australia, their premier competitions have salary caps of $210,000 and $200,000 respectively for 2021. And these caps were cut considerably due to COVID. West Australian clubs are now lobbying for their cap to be lifted to $500,000.
In comparison, the TSL salary cap of $80,000 is a joke.

In South Australia and Western Australia, all the best players not playing in the two AFL teams play in their premier football competition.
Is it any wonder they are getting heaps of kids drafted? It’s because their best young players are playing against men each week who can seriously play!
This has not been the case here. It was 30 years ago, but not now.
A well-resourced state league like the SANFL would also address the considerable drain of talented young players from Tasmania to other competitions on the mainland and see more Tasmanians drafted.
It will also attract good quality players from the mainland improving the standard of local footy.

Footy in Tasmania needs an urgent and radical reset if it is to prosper and grow. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

We’ve lost players to the SANFL and other mainland competitions and it’s heartbreaking and symptomatic of the decline and lack of ambition and vision for the game here.TSL teams are also struggling to retain players — many of whom are poached while still under contract — by lower-level competitions that offer more money and have no salary cap and no policing of their player payments.

This was raised as a major issue by TSL clubs in 2018 and is now finally being addressed by the Tasmanian Football Board, AFL Tasmania and all the leagues and associations in Tasmania, which is welcome. However, it needs to be properly policed, and the salary caps need to clearly differentiate the TSL from the competitions that sit below it.

As well as being top of the pay scale, an annual opportunity for TSL players to represent the state would also greatly assist in differentiating the product as would income protection insurance.For footy to prosper and grow, the game needs an urgent and radical reset, and the reset must start with:

A STRATEGIC plan and vision for the game in the state created with input from all key footy stakeholders.A TASMANIAN AFL team with its own talent academy

A PROPERLY resourced statewide or premier league with North-West Coast representation and a decent salary cap of at least $200,000.SALARY caps for lower-level competitions well below that and properly policed.

A GOVERNANCE model for administration of the game in Tasmania that gives us more autonomy and say on the future direction of the game here.This will require investment from the state government, the AFL and dividends from our AFL team flowing into footy at all levels in the state.If the above occurs, the game here will prosper and be revitalised, and we will see more talented Tasmanians drafted to the AFL.We simply cannot keep going the way we are.

Craig Martin is President of the North Hobart Football Club. He was also the executive director of Sport and Recreation in Tasmania for more than seven years.

Thanks for posting that Craig Martin article mate.

 

[HPKS]

Graham Cornes, SA legend, several months ago, on his Adelaide 5AA radio program, accurately described the state of AF in Tasmania, & its neglect by the AFL, as a "national disgrace"- harsher words could have been used. He also said "The pressure, the rage, must be maintained".

In the last week, SEN Melb.'s G. Whateley has said the (non-player wage) Football Dept. cap should not include the Head Coach salary, so Head Coaches can & should be paid more- "let the market decide"- & consideration should be given to raising the general cap.
P. Dangerfield publicly supported his views on SEN.

The greed of the overpaid Not_For_Profit AFL executives, & others in the "Football Industry", is sickening. They have abrogated their responsibiity to the game.

Tas. was once a goldmine for VFL/AFL recruitment- with respect & proper funding, the pantheon of champions & stars can be revived.
GR male soccer & basketball comp. nos. are booming in Tas.- a fact the naysayers to a Tas. 19th team conveniently ignore.




"Urgent help required to save ‘sick’ Tasmanian football, say those on the frontline
Brett Stubbs, Mercury
May 13, 2021 9:09am
Subscriber only

FOOTBALL is on its sick bed and the demise of the TSL will send the game back a decade, say those at the coalface.
Three TSL coaches have raised concerns over the plight of the game following North Hobart president Craig Martin raising doubts on the future of the code in Tasmania without urgent funding increases and a vision for the future. (see his Talking Point below)

The TSL has licence agreements with AFL Tasmania until 2023, but if the AFL pulls the pin on the competition, it must give 12 months notice to participating clubs – meaning a decision could be made next season.

Jeromey Webberley (Clarence), Paul Kennedy (Glenorchy) and Daniel Willing (Lauderdale) all raised concerns over the decline participation and the flow-on that would affect senior football.
Webberley was clear in how desperate the situation was.

“The game is sick at the moment and we can talk about an AFL team and what the TSL looks like, but if we don’t fix underneath, it doesn’t matter what’s on top,” he said.
“We could drop an AFL team here in five years, it is not going to fix participation because it will be gone.”

Roos coach Jeromey Webberley. Picture Eddie Safarik

Head of AFL Tasmania Damian Gill said official figures showed participation had actually grown the past five years with 2021 on track to meet or exceed pre-COVID numbers.

“We acknowledge there are challenges and concerns from parts of community football, including but not limited to the distribution of players across clubs and competitions,” Gill said.
“It is important we look at the landscape holistically and consult deeply.
“The best structure for Tasmanian community football in the future is something we are looking closely at, with more to be communicated soon.”

Willing backed Martin’s call for an urgent lift in the TSL salary cap from $80,000 to retain the best players and attract former AFL and VFL players while Kennedy said the end of the women’s state league, the TSLW, was a warning sign for what could happen in the men’s league with players lost due to the switch back to regional football.

“If you don’t have a state competition … you have mediocrity,” Kennedy said.
“We’ve seen that in the women’s competition this year.
“If we went down that track on the TSL side of things we would just be putting Tasmanian footy back again for a decade.
“We’d be having the same thing that happened through the 2000s and then we would have to have the same process of lifting it up.”

Glenorchy coach Paul Kennedy. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

He said the loss of youth-age footballers – those aged 13 to 18 – in Tasmania was above that compared to other states.
“Footy is not just about the ones who get drafted to the AFL,” he said.
“It is about all these kids who get involved and how it helps them become good young men and women and the lessons they learn and the adolescent years are the huge ones.
“We are failing them by not having the right aspirational model for kids at that age group and now we are seeing the result of it at senior footy because that failure has been there for a long time now.”
brett.stubbs@news.com.au


HOW CAN WE SAVE FOOTBALL IN TASSIE?
Aussie rules football in Tasmania is in a desperate state and needs an urgent and extensive overhaul — including a Tasmanian team in the AFL, argues CRAIG MARTIN.

ON page 21 of the excellent AFL Taskforce report is a section entitled A Game Under Threat.
I have been involved in footy all my life in Tasmania and I have never seen the game that we love in this state at such a crossroads moment like now.
First and foremost, what is the plan, the vision for the game here? What is the strategic direction for footy in Tasmania? There isn’t any.

The plan for the future must be for a home-grown Tasmanian AFL team with its own talent academy, underpinned by a strong, well-resourced Tasmanian State or Premier League that includes a team from one of the great footy heartlands, the North-West Coast, and greater autonomy in decision-making about the game by Tasmanians for Tasmania.
An AFL team will rekindle interest in footy in the state and give us direction. It will also pay healthy dividends into community footy.
An AFL team will deliver sustainable growth in participation, which is what has happened in Western Sydney and South-East Queensland with the advent of GWS and the Gold Coast Suns – teams to which the AFL has contributed tens of millions of dollars.

It will unquestionably help to address the significant decline of boys and young men participating in football in the state over the past 10-15 years.
Between 2006 and 2017 there was a drop of 14.7 per cent in males playing the game in Tasmania.
Most alarming was a 22 per cent drop in males aged 13-18 playing the game — critical ages because these ages are the conduit between junior and senior football. This was during a period where in all other football states male participation grew between 5 and 20 per cent. (Source AFL Tasmania Junior/Youth Football Review 2017 and published in the Mercury in July 2018).

The number of players in junior Aussie Rules competitions in Tasmania has been falling in recent years. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

Such has been the decline in male participation and the lack of direction and engagement from the game’s governing body here, that in pursuing a Tasmanian AFL team the Tasmanian government in 2019 put in place its own body — the Tasmanian Football Board — to address these issues.

Tasmania is about to get a national basketball team which poses another threat to participation and interest in football in the state.

When we do have our own AFL team we should aspire to a similar model to football in South Australia where the State’s premier football competition, the SANFL, underpins the two AFL teams and the game is run by a nine-person independent commission (currently chaired by Rob Kerin a former Premier of SA) on behalf of the SANFL clubs and all South Australian community and junior football.
It works very well, and I believe the Tasmanian Football Board could become such a body.

Tasmanian State League (TSL) clubs have had their funding cut by about 40 per cent in 2021 (our licence agreement stipulates $110,000 and we will receive $60,000 this year) and we have not been provided with any surety of funding beyond 2023 or any guarantees that the TSL will continue beyond the expiration of the current licence agreement, which ends at the end of 2023.
How can we plan for the future if we don’t know how much funding we’ll receive and what competition we are playing in?

The TSL salary cap of $80,000 is “a joke” in comparison to other states’ premier footy competitions. Picture: Zak Simmonds

AFL Tasmania also decided that the TSL salary cap would be reduced in 2021 from $95,000 to $80,000 despite all clubs except one saying they didn’t want it reduced.
In South Australia and Western Australia, their premier competitions have salary caps of $210,000 and $200,000 respectively for 2021. And these caps were cut considerably due to COVID. West Australian clubs are now lobbying for their cap to be lifted to $500,000.
In comparison, the TSL salary cap of $80,000 is a joke.

In South Australia and Western Australia, all the best players not playing in the two AFL teams play in their premier football competition.
Is it any wonder they are getting heaps of kids drafted? It’s because their best young players are playing against men each week who can seriously play!
This has not been the case here. It was 30 years ago, but not now.
A well-resourced state league like the SANFL would also address the considerable drain of talented young players from Tasmania to other competitions on the mainland and see more Tasmanians drafted.
It will also attract good quality players from the mainland improving the standard of local footy.

Footy in Tasmania needs an urgent and radical reset if it is to prosper and grow. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

We’ve lost players to the SANFL and other mainland competitions and it’s heartbreaking and symptomatic of the decline and lack of ambition and vision for the game here. TSL teams are also struggling to retain players — many of whom are poached while still under contract — by lower-level competitions that offer more money and have no salary cap and no policing of their player payments.

This was raised as a major issue by TSL clubs in 2018 and is now finally being addressed by the Tasmanian Football Board, AFL Tasmania and all the leagues and associations in Tasmania, which is welcome. However, it needs to be properly policed, and the salary caps need to clearly differentiate the TSL from the competitions that sit below it.

As well as being top of the pay scale, an annual opportunity for TSL players to represent the state would also greatly assist in differentiating the product as would income protection insurance. For footy to prosper and grow, the game needs an urgent and radical reset, and the reset must start with:

A STRATEGIC plan and vision for the game in the state created with input from all key footy stakeholders.

A TASMANIAN AFL team with its own talent academy

A PROPERLY resourced statewide or premier league with North-West Coast representation and a decent salary cap of at least $200,000.SALARY caps for lower-level competitions well below that and properly policed.

A GOVERNANCE model for administration of the game in Tasmania that gives us more autonomy and say on the future direction of the game here. This will require investment from the state government, the AFL and dividends from our AFL team flowing into footy at all levels in the state If the above occurs, the game here will prosper and be revitalised, and we will see more talented Tasmanians drafted to the AFL. We simply cannot keep going the way we are.

Craig Martin is President of the North Hobart Football Club. He was also the executive director of Sport and Recreation in Tasmania for more than seven years".

Great articles BBT. Everything written in the articles reaffirms what a lot of us have been saying for a long time. It’s the perfect example of why SA& WA hold onto footy there for dear life and won’t let the AFL get it’s hands on it as they only ever consider the top end of footy and will let lower footy die a slow death. They don’t govern for the game they govern for the “national” league.

 

[sherb]

Great articles BBT. Everything written in the articles reaffirms what a lot of us have been saying for a long time. It’s the perfect example of why SA& WA hold onto footy there for dear life and won’t let the AFL get it’s hands on it as they only ever consider the top end of footy and will let lower footy die a slow death. They don’t govern for the game they govern for the “national” league.

Spot on.

It's the only reason they have been pumping money into NSW (via junior development) since the late 90s. Not for the good of the game itself but for the good of the AFL competition, by (a) breeding consumers of AFL product and (2) producing draft talent.

 

[Bicco]

One issue I see down here is the structure of Junior Football (I'm speaking about Hobart specifically). Growing up in Freo I played in the East Fremantle district. There was a junior district assigned to every WAFL club. The WAFL clubs DID NOT have a junior club of their own. (There is an East Fremantle JFC but it is not associated with the league club). All of the junior clubs competed within that district and then the 'elite' players would play games for a 'combined side' that was say an U16's East Freo team playing U/16's Souths or whoever in a carnival once a year.
Here at the moment there is basically player harvesting by the State League clubs (North Hobart, Kingborough, Clarence and Lauderdale) who DO have a junior football dept. and they actively recruit the top 'talent' from non affiliated clubs to play junior football. The result being that in the older grades of junior football, you're left with very poor (skill wise) teams playing very good teams. The TSL clubs often have 2 or 3 teams per age group whereas the other smaller clubs are struggling to field one. This is reflected in the article above with the interest in players dropping off in their teenage years. Rather than having one or two guns in each team, you're left with no good players vs 10+ 'guns'. It's just not interesting for the boys to lose each week. It's generally known and an unspoken rule that unless, as a junior, you're aligned with a TSL club, you are not in the pathway to play at the top level. It would be the equivalent of Collingwood or Richmond competing against Broadmeadows/Prahan for junior players. It's obvious where the kids will go if they want to play AFL.
Under the TSL is the Southern Football league which seems to lose a club every few years. There's just not the juniors coming through.
It would be interesting to see if the TSL clubs would let go of their junior programs to spread the players back into the community more evenly.
It's a major structural issue but there's a lot of vested interest that has to be dealt with.

 

[HPKS]

Spot on.

It's the only reason they have been pumping money into NSW (via junior development) since the late 90s. Not for the good of the game itself but for the good of the AFL competition, by (a) breeding consumers of AFL product and (2) producing draft talent.

Not just NSW that’s their whole intention for footy full stop. Increase draftable talent and consumers for the AFL.

 

[sherb]

Not just NSW that’s their whole intention for footy full stop. Increase draftable talent and consumers for the AFL.

Oh, most definitely, I only mentioned NSW because I have been involved in footy here for a long time and know it to be the case from personal experience.

 

[The Devils Advocate]

BTW - I had my first visit to Tassie for some years last week, to both north and south. Things are really booming down there now - especially (though not exclusively) in Hobart.

Hope you enjoyed yourself down here mate any highlights?

 

[madmug]

Hope you enjoyed yourself down here mate any highlights?

Pinot Noir? Pale Ale? Boutique whiskey, Gin?

Lots of cheap crayfish at the moment too.

 

[The Devils Advocate]

Pinot Noir? Pale Ale? Boutique whiskey, Gin?

Lots of cheap crayfish at the moment too.

Cherries were like 1/3 of the price at Christmas too here, it was incredible.

 

[Freomaniac]

Surely step 1 is deciding whether the new team is Hobart, Launceston, or both.

thats the interesting bit

 

[Tasmanian saint]

thats the interesting bit

It’s been stated a thousand times team would be based in Hobart split the home games between the two not sure why people still keep bringing this up

 

[shammersting]

It’s been stated a thousand times team would be based in Hobart split the home games between the two not sure why people still keep bringing this up

Yep, and maybe to appease the north, 6 games and finals there. Better venue too..

 

[Engimal v3]

It’s been stated a thousand times team would be based in Hobart split the home games between the two not sure why people still keep bringing this up

Yep, mainlanders want to manufacture some conflict. I'm a Northern Tasmanian, but the team obviously will be based in Hobart and would split games between Hobart and Launceston. The likely case would be swapping the uneven home game each year between the two cities.

 

[sherb]

Yep, and maybe to appease the north, 6 games and finals there. Better venue too..

Putting games in Launceston has nothing to do with appeasement.

 

[sherb]

Yep, mainlanders want to manufacture some conflict. I'm a Northern Tasmanian, but the team obviously will be based in Hobart and would split games between Hobart and Launceston. The likely case would be swapping the uneven home game each year between the two cities.

Exactly.

Even mainlanders should be able to work it out.

 

[BringBackTorps]

1. Melb. H./Sun Hobart Mercury B. Stubbs 6.5.21 Article heading " Relocation in Tassie review mix" (Behind paywall).

Stubbs said "The AFL's review of Tasmania's business case could recommend a team being relocated south".

C. Carter said

"The terms of reference from the AFL are to look at everything. Presumably it (relocation) would be included (and) if I had that point of view on any of those things the AFL wants to know about it. ...(on the State's entry) I haven't been a supporter or opponent either...I think I was quoted once as saying if you are talking about the clubs that needed support, it seems a bit odd we support 10 Victorian ones but not the first Tasmanian one, which is not a case for either the 10th Victorian one or the first Tasmanian one".

"The review will be completed by July, but the AFL Commission will not make a decision until season's end".




2. The Age/SMH P. Ryan 18.5

C. Carter is visiting Tas. from this 19.5- 21.5 inclusive, speaking to the Bid Team, Tas. govt. etc. about the Tas. Business Case etc..

Ryan states Carter is also speaking to W. Lee, from the AFL Strategy Task Force (which is examining various aspects of the game generally), who will provide information to Carter that is relevant about a possible Tas.19th team.
(Hopefully, Lee's information is also passed to the Tas. Bid Team simultaneously).

Colin Carter heads to Tasmania in crucial week for 19th team bid

Former Geelong president Colin Carter will meet Tasmanian premier Peter Gutwein week as part of his review into the business case for a team in Tasmania from 2025.

www.smh.com.au