AFL 'HAS NO PLAN' HERE BEYOND 2016

THE FOCUS IS ON TALENT PATHWAY

AFL Tasmania chief executive Scott Wade believes that on-field, the State League product is "exceptional".

Four points separated the competition's top four sides this season, with only percentage between the minor premiers Clarence and yesterday's grand finalists North Launceston and Western Storm.

Wade said it was the first time in Tasmania's 149-year football history that two Launceston-based clubs had vied for a state premiership - and it was in front of a 5842-strong crowd.

He said the reinvigorated State League, in its sixth year, was at it strongest since the original competition folded in 1998.

"When we first established the State League, we said it was going to be a 10 to 20-year project to get it to where we would like to get it," Wade said.

"The on-field product is exceptional and I guess the key indicator of that is really the interstate game.

"When we played the NEAFL in Hobart we were competing against Queensland, NSW, ACT and the Northern Territory and we convincingly defeated them.

"Off-field there has been steady progress over the first six years and we expect there to be steady progress over the next decade."

Wade said the State League was here to stay and he was pleased with how clubs involved had embraced it.

He said for the Western Storm to play off in a grand final in its inaugural year was an "exceptionally good result".

"There was a lot of hysteria 12 months ago - you would have thought the football world was going to end," he said.

"We knew we were doing the right thing, we knew we were doing the best thing for both (South Launceston and Western Storm) clubs, and here were are now.

"South Launceston is still here and won a premiership and the Western Storm played off in a grand final."