AFL Tasmania chief executive Robert Auld has said the Future of Tasmanian Football Forum in Launceston on September 4-5 will address some key issues for the future of football in the state.
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Auld said the forum follows on from the release of the Garlick Report and meetings held with community football, state league club presidents and umpire representatives.
“We felt it was the logical point in time to get as many of those stakeholders together as we can and we are going to look to solve two questions only across the day and a half rather than trying to solve too many things,” he said.
“We will be quite pointed and focused on outcomes and the first question we will look to solve is what is the right competition model for Tasmanian footy.
“I believe the state league should continue no question but what is the right number of teams and what are the right feeder competitions – should it be a development league and should all clubs be in it?
“And equally important for me is what is community football and what’s the right pathway from state league into community footy and vice-versa and what’s the extension between junior and senior leagues and do we have the right age brackets in junior leagues and the right programs.”
Auld said the two-day meetings would involve stakeholders looking at three competition models in working groups and assessing the pros and cons of each.
“At the end of day one the first question we will look to answer is to recommend one of the models.
“It won’t be us telling the footy community what we think they need – it will be what have they come up with.
“That’s a pretty big question to work through and once we’ve resolved that we will look at when do we do it – do we do it all in 2017 or do we spread it over the two years.
“Do we need a points system in place, do we need to reduce the salary cap, do we need to reduce zones, how do we fit school footy in because I want to work with school footy – in other words what are the enablers to bring the recommended competition model to life.?”
Auld said once those two key questions were resolved he believed the stakeholders could start to mobilise toward some progress.
He said on the final day of the forum, media would be invited to attend to talk with AFL Tasmania, state league and community footy representatives to discuss the outcomes from the football forum.
