State League: Round 11.

[Kingpin]

Tasmanian State League: Round 11
Glenorchy v Lauderdale - KGV Football Park.
Burnie v North Launceston - West Park Oval.
North Hobart v Devonport - North Hobart Oval.
South Launceston v Launceston - Youngtown Memorial Ground.
Hobart v Clarence - Snug Park. (Sunday)

In what has been somewhat of a murky week for the TSL with scandals hitting the papers most days, the action returns to the field for Round 11.
Another wet week in Hobart, the wettest month in 13 years in the capital should see some more muddy action take place in three matches, while the coast and Launceston to host the other two.

Glenorchy take on Lauderdale at KGV in what should be a pretty solid win for the Pies.
Lauderdale has been unceremoniously murdered there every other time they've played there, whilst I don't think the sort of cricket scores that the Pies have kicked in recent years at KGV against them will eventuate this week, I can't see the Bombers getting too close to an in-form Glenorchy side.
The Bombers took the points in a dogged encounter last week against Hobart to register their first top-level home win and their opponents gave North Launceston a football lesson at Aurora Stadium.
It's wet, strange things can happen but I don't think they will. Pies to win in a slopheap.

Burnie tackle North Launceston up at West Park in what looks to be another one-sided game.
Last time these two sides met at West Park the Dockers booted the highest score in the TSL with 30.20 (200) and won by 105-points.
Trouble is with a match like this is, just which North Launceston will turn up?
Burnie seem to be able to dig themselves out of big holes which they've done a few times now and if the opposition isn't up to scratch then a caning is on the cards.
Burnie to win and stay top, the margin subject to which North shows up!

North Hobart will be buoyed by the wonderful win they had against Launceston at Aurora Stadium last week and Devonport had Burnie on the rack early in the last quarter only to get swamped by the Dockers to lose narrowly.
This should be a good game this one and could go either way, North Hobart will obviously be greasy but I doubt an old fashioned 90's mudbath will eventuate.
North Hobart to win but not by much, this will be crucial for both sides, North to get themselves entrenched into the six and Devonport won't want to drop a third one on the trot and keep falling.

South Launceston and Launceston clash at Youngtown and on paper it should be big win to the Blues, but who'd know lately!
Launceston were starting to hit their straps after a lean spell for a few weeks until last weeks failure and the Bulldogs are a tenacious outfit who'll give a good account of themselves for parts of the match but will need to watch the Blues big guns don't start running amok or else it'll get ugly for the Dogs.
Launceston have been dropping games unexpectedly at times this season but I don't think they'll drop this one.

Hobart and Clarence meet at Snug Park in Snug, the home of the Channel Football Club in the Old Scholars Football Association and formerly the SFL on Sunday.
Snug hosted two Hobart-Sandy Bay TFL games back in 1994 & 1995 to strong crowds on those occasions.
This match is billed as a grass-roots game and it'll be interesting to see what kind of crowd shows up down there for this one.
The Roos come into the match on the back of an 82-point win over South Launceston but a tumultuous week off-field with the Flasher-gate affair and the Jack Boon assault charges pending so it'll be interesting to see whether this distracts or galvanises the Roos' playing group.
Hobart were very disappointing last week in dropping the match at Lauderdale and they seemed to go back into old bad habits.
Clarence will be anxious to play decent football away from the dry Bellerive track and try and nab third spot whilst Hobart kicked their slim finals chances away and will either come out firing, trying to shape the six or drop away.
Hopefully a good contest ensues but the Roos should record a solid win after a close first half.

Recent News Stories
June 26th: Hobart's TSL coach departs - Click here.
June 26th: Claim of Boon bias - Click here.
June 26th: AFL steps in on bad behaviour - Click here.
June 25th: Demons on fire - Click here.
June 25th: MacMichael's back for Dockers - Click here.
June 24th: TSL's lash for clash - Click here.
June 24th: Players' booze bus antics - Click here.
June 24th: Boonie's son may face charges - Click here.
June 24th: Footy flasher avoids charge - Click here.
June 23rd: Richter revels in challenge - Click here.
June 23rd: Early start to shake up Dockers - Click here.
June 23rd: Footy flasher's swift justice - Click here.
June 22nd: Club to act on footy flash - Click here,
June 22nd: Devonport nearly bring top side down - Click here.
June 18th: McVilly gets four weeks for strike - Click here.

 

[PaulPeos]

Maybe Hobart might get up on Sunday now that they have had a change of coach??

 

[Sin City]

Few big ins for the Dockers the last few weeks, Craig Stretton and Tim MacMichael, they just keep getting stronger.

 

[JM71]

Maybe Hobart might get up on Sunday now that they have had a change of coach??

Hope that you're right.

 

[Barge]

Snug - like most grounds around Hobart might I add - will be an absolute mess for Sunday's game after all this rain, Bellerive it sure ain't!

 

[Kingpin]

Final Scores: TSL Seniors
Nth Hobart 17.11 (113) - Devonport 11.12 (78) - North Hobart Oval.
Burnie 17.14 (116) - Nth Launceston 9.9 (63) - West Park Oval.
Glenorchy 21.14 (140) - Lauderdale 4.3 (27) - KGV Football Park.
Sth Launceston 14.10 (94) - Launceston 14.6 (90) - Youngtown Memorial Ground.

TSL Reserves
Nth Hobart 18.15 (123) - Devonport 7.5 (47)
Burnie 18.10 (118) - Nth Launceston 7.13 (55)
Glenorchy 11.4 (70) - Lauderdale 8.8 (56)
Launceston 17.13 (115) - Sth Launceston 4.4 (28)

TSL Under 19's:
Lauderdale 8.8 (56) - Glenorchy 7.5 (47)
Launceston 8.9 (57) - Sth Launceston 4.6 (30)

In today's matches, the ABC1 game saw North Hobart gradually draw away from Devonport to win by 35-points at a soggy North Hobart.
Both sides were wasteful early with North holding a slight lead at the first change.
Devonport dominated the first fifteen minutes of the second quarter but couldn't capitalise on their chances, it was to be the story of the day for them.
North kicking clear in the third quarter, Devonport had plenty of chances but missed gettable goals and the Demons would reply quickly.
The final quarter was dominated by North, Devine finishing with 5 goals to put North Hobart up to 5th place on the ladder.

South Launceston came from 23-points down early in the final quarter to hit the front in time-on at Youngtown.
A goal from a free kick in the goal square to Davis for South at the 25 minute mark was enough to get them over the line beating Launceston by 4-points, the 'Dogs third win, all by less than a kick, for the season.

Glenorchy stopped to a walk in the second half at KGV but still managed to beat the hapless Lauderdale by 113-points.
The Magpies booting 10.5 in the opening quarter and 6.5 in the second saw Glenorchy leading by a whopping 94-points at half time, and yet another KGV cricket score was looming against Lauderdale.
To their credit, Lauderdale held Glenorchy goalless in the third quarter, themselves booting only one, but it was back to normal in the last as Glenorchy responded with five more to remain in second spot.

Burnie continued on in fine form recording a 53-point win over North Launceston at West Park to remain on top and continuing the Bombers poor run of form in recent weeks.

 

[sportstalk07]

Won't Windsor Park be the place to be this week. I wonder what excuse Emperor Thurlow will use. Odds on bet for the "We have injuries" line, closely followed by the "No Excuses", maybe even the "We'll have to make a number of changes".
We could now call Windsor Park maybe Excuse Central perhaps...

 

[crows26]

Won't Windsor Park be the place to be this week. I wonder what excuse Emperor Thurlow will use. Odds on bet for the "We have injuries" line, closely followed by the "No Excuses", maybe even the "We'll have to make a number of changes".
We could now call Windsor Park maybe Excuse Central perhaps...

I agree.....what a wonderful sight it was yesterday at Youngtown to see the young pups get up over an arrogant, front running, lazy, all for themselves Launceston outfit. B Savage is nothing more than a whinging whining to the umpires continually kind of player! True credit to the Bulldogs, they out coached Sanders and co ( the co being about 12 assistants!), moving Heazlewood forward, he is a young gun, and the dominant Hills back in the Ruck, they were awesome.
Time to plan for 2010 LFC! Good bye!

 

[Kingpin]

Final Scores: TSL Seniors
Nth Hobart 17.11 (113) - Devonport 11.12 (78) - North Hobart Oval.
Burnie 17.14 (116) - Nth Launceston 9.9 (63) - West Park Oval.
Glenorchy 21.14 (140) - Lauderdale 4.3 (27) - KGV Football Park.
Sth Launceston 14.10 (94) - Launceston 14.6 (90) - Youngtown Memorial Ground.

TSL Reserves
Nth Hobart 18.15 (123) - Devonport 7.5 (47)
Burnie 18.10 (118) - Nth Launceston 7.13 (55)
Glenorchy 11.4 (70) - Lauderdale 8.8 (56)
Launceston 17.13 (115) - Sth Launceston 4.4 (28)

TSL Under 19's:
Lauderdale 8.8 (56) - Glenorchy 7.5 (47)
Launceston 8.9 (57) - Sth Launceston 4.6 (30)

TSL Seniors
Clarence 18.13 (121) - Hobart 11.7 (73)

TSL Reserves
Clarence 13.20 (98) - Hobart 7.9 (51)

TSL Under-19's
Clarence defeated Hobart on forfeit.

Clarence beat Hobart by 48-points at Snug Park this afternoon in bright sunshine on what was a wet track but held together quite well.
Clarence dominated the game for the better part, with Hobart battling to stay in it, the Tigers backline did a great job curtailing the onslaught during the first half, it could've been a lot more than the 26-point half time margin (9.5 to 5.3) in Graeme Fox's first game as coach.

The Roos gradually drew away from the Tigers late in the third quarter after Hobart got a run-on and got to within 13-points and Cassidy (from memory) missed a sitter which would've brought the margin back to 8-points at that stage.
From that point, the Roos went straight down the ground and goaled, then kicked three more to blunt Hobart's momentum.
As the sun gradually began to sink behind the hills, the temperature plummeted rapidly and the Roos blew the game apart kicking to the Beach Road end in the final quarter, at one stage getting out to a 59-point lead (18.12 to 9.7) with Dutton in superb touch booting 6 before the Tigers kicked a couple of late ones to reduce the margin at siren time.

Not a big crowd at the match, and to be honest it was pretty much a pro-Clarence crowd, Hobart had very little support at the ground.
Hobart now sink to the bottom of the TSL ladder.

 

[kenrosewall]

Went along and watched the Dees v Pies game at NH on Saturday.

Pretty good game without ever getting too tight. NH probably should have won by more. Their next two I believe are against Hobart and Lauderdale, so I'd expect them to be well entrenched in the 6 by then.

Better players on the day for me were Divenuto and McCrossen.

Not a great crowd, not surprising given the gloomy skies, but hard to guess a number. Anyone have any indication of what the crowd sizes have been since the first few rounds?

 

[kenrosewall]

.....

 

[Barge]

How is Brad Absolom going for North Hobart? Heard he debuted the other week.

 

[kenrosewall]

How is Brad Absolom going for North Hobart? Heard he debuted the other week.

From memory he did a couple of OK things on the weekend. Overheard someone next to me ask another person how he goes and I think the response was OK. Can't really give you much more than that though.

 

[Kingpin]

Anyone have any indication of what the crowd sizes have been since the first few rounds?

Not sure about most of them, but the Devonport & Burnie game on the Sunday last week got 1,150 according the Advocate.
I know our crowds have been quite a bit up on last year but still aren't all that good, season opener aside.
Our home games at the TCA have been Glenorchy (2,000), North Hobart (550), South Launceston (470) and Glenorchy (850) - all approximates.
The match at Snug on Sunday, hard to guage with all the cars around the ground, but having seen the two games in the mid-90's with 2,421 and 1,487 there, I would estimate that there were about 700 down there, if that, probably just under.
Our match at West Park the other week was a very small crowd, the two games down at Lauderdale were probably about 750 in the first one and about 600 the second one.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

Only 1150 for Burnie v Devonport. That's a worry. Those games used to get 2-3k, sometimes more when at West Park, even in the dying days of State League 1.

 

[roorat]

Not sure about most of them, but the Devonport & Burnie game on the Sunday last week got 1,150 according the Advocate.
I know our crowds have been quite a bit up on last year but still aren't all that good, season opener aside.
Our home games at the TCA have been Glenorchy (2,000), North Hobart (550), South Launceston (470) and Glenorchy (850) - all approximates.
The match at Snug on Sunday, hard to guage with all the cars around the ground, but having seen the two games in the mid-90's with 2,421 and 1,487 there, I would estimate that there were about 700 down there, if that, probably just under.
Our match at West Park the other week was a very small crowd, the two games down at Lauderdale were probably about 750 in the first one and about 600 the second one.

Does anyone know who pays the tab for Aurora and Bellerive? I know approx what it costs to hire Aurora and going by crowd figures the days the games are held here would end up a huge loss for the home team if applicable. Going by crowd numbers it may be financially and atmosphere wise to rethink games at these venues.

 

[Kingpin]

Does anyone know who pays the tab for Aurora and Bellerive? I know approx what it costs to hire Aurora and going by crowd figures the days the games are held here would end up a huge loss for the home team if applicable. Going by crowd numbers it may be financially and atmosphere wise to rethink games at these venues.

I would've thought it was the AFL who would pick up the tab for those games, I'm not entirely sure.
You are right though, the crowds at the games held at those two venues in particular would be a financial disaster for the home clubs if they had to pay the costs involved, not only that, but it's an extremely embarrassing look to have crowds of under 400 (as in the case of Lauderdale v North Launceston a few weeks ago, Clarence v South Launceston last week and North Launceston v South Launceston today) at 20,000 and 16,000 capacity venues.
Furthermore, I don't think either venue deserves to hold the grand final either really.
Imagine the atmosphere? It'd be like holding the local resident's group discussional meeting in City Hall.
I know the crowds haven't been all that great across the state but it seems Launceston more than any other area has turned their backs on their clubs.
South Launceston & Launceston both had smallish followings to begin with but what the hell's happened to North Launceston's following?
They have hardly a supporter these days (if they drew a crowd of 300 today I'll call bullshit), and that club used to be one of the best supported and proudest clubs in the state, the old North Launceston Robins.

Hopefully it's a situation where the competition starts to build up a bit of credibility and the crowds return a bit more, I know life is vastly different to when the old League was drawing big crowds, but the attendances across the board are disappointing so far.