Football in Tasmania faces a number of challenges – but none as significant or fundamental as its necessity to survive and thrive.
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Teams have come and gone, dropped out of competitions altogether. Entire leagues have fallen apart or become defunct.
But one thing remains constant – our state’s love for the game.
But there are challenges. Our pre-eminent competition has several hurdles to face.
One club - the Prospect Hawks – may or may not re-enter the State League at all if their licence application to rejoin is unsuccessful.
The club’s new business case has been submitted to the hierarchy at AFL Tasmania. They alone will decide if the Hawks will be welcomed back into the fold. And most people in the business have absolute faith in those new leaders – particularly chief executive Rob Auld.
Talk to anyone who deals with Auld and his team and they are impressed. Very impressed. They have what appears to be a rock-solid plan in place for football in this state and a determination to make sure that plan is successfully implemented.
The Hawks, however, present a problem. We will know in two weeks what future lies ahead for Prospect, but to the average football fan on the outside looking in, it’s not looking promising.
That wouldn’t be the end of the world, mind you. It could be argued that Launceston would be better placed with just two teams in the TSL rather than three.
But to complicate things, there are murmurings from the south of a need to axe the existing salary cap. You don’t need a long memory to recall the history of state league football in Tasmania.
The original TSL was formed in 1986, but fell apart in 2000 due to the number of clubs unable to cope financially. Much of that stress came about from a desire by clubs to live well beyond their means.
It would be eight years before AFL Tasmania would revive the league, but this time as a 10-team competition with stricter guidelines around player payments and club financials.
Now, however, we have one president calling for the $80,000 salary cap to be scrapped – opting for an open-slather approach to club spending.
This is a naive and short-sighted suggestion and one that will hopefully never see the light of day.
