TSL 8 team competition

[Duff TV]

Can't help but think that in an ideal world where there was more money made available to assist with travel, that 8 teams is the right number for this competition.

There are simply 2 too many teams. players are getting a game that are not up the standard that the comp needs to be at.

It's a tricky one for AFL Tas this one with the Tasmanian demographics the issue.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

Too many teams were allowe din at the beginning, but to play around with that now will just make the whole thing look like the statewide TFL was. One of the big problems with that was the way clubs were dropping in and out in the last five years or so. Sandy Bay, Southern Districts, Burnie Hawks merging with Burnie Tigers, Launceston in and out, South constantly paying well below the salary cap, etc.

IMO, the league needs years, lots of them, with the same clubs competing, or risk going down the path of the former state league. No new teams, and pull out all the stops to keep the current teams afloat.
Yes, in an ideal world less teams would have been invited. In terms of quality, and financial stability, the ideal size was probably six; but that would get repetitive with clubs playing each other four times.

 

[Kingpin]

In a nutshell, that's absolutely correct Howard.
What people have to keep in mind is, that the comparison between Australian football in 1990 and the current day sport are Worlds apart - there isn't a comparison.

In 1990 the TFL's salary cap for each club was 1/10th of each AFL club's salary cap.
This was quite handy in allowing us to procure many very good players fresh off AFL lists, and it also made it handy for us to lure a lot of very high quality players from the strong suburban competitions around Melbourne and other places, this was why we had such solid crowds from week to week.
The only thing that ruined it was the fact that the entire State went into economic meltdown in the early 90's and the State itself had a debt running into the billions by 1998.
Now each AFL club's salary cap ($8.21m) is 117 times the size of each TSL club's.

We cannot compete with such a yawning gap. To expect crowds to pour in and sponsorship dollars to flow like a river into the game is not a realistic proposition.

Between 1990-2011 our highest level competition has gone from having 1/10th to 1/117th the individual club salary cap differential between it and the national competition.

Chopping and changing things every five minutes is only going to serve to annoy everybody and further undermine any confidence that may have been gained in this comp.

 

[GreyBudgie]

I think the competition should of been eight teams from the start,. However in the infinity wisdom AFL Tas. went with the current set up and to change the numbers and clubs like they did with SWL ver1.0 (Barry Breen onwards) will only cause instability within the game. After the last 15 years of miss management a bit of stability is urgently needed.

Furthermore If you compare over the last 15 years what Cricket Tasmania has done for Cricket and then compared it to what AFL Tasmania has done for Football in this State. It is like comparing Lindt Chocolate to a pile of doggie doo doo !!