Scottsdale Crows president Darren Breen believes that the NTFA did not consider the broader consequences on the North-East community of their decision to admit two of the four NEFU clubs into their roster from 2017.
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Breen said he was disappointed by the decision which effectively leaves the Crows and Winnaleah to stand alone in trying to keep footy in the region alive.
“There was talk a few years about the NTFA trying to help the NEFU and this year they made an effort to meet us and put some figures together and come out to games which was good,” he said. “But they put all these figures together and basically gave us an ultimatum with a couple of options and told us we had this time frame to sort it ourselves without any help and country footy is all run by volunteers who have work to do so it was a bit difficult.
“Then we had the statement from the NTFA that they wouldn’t take any teams unless the NEFU had folded or was in recess so it has been disappointing all-round. “And I just don’t think they looked at the broader picture – it’s country footy and its the North-East that has been hit pretty hard in the past 10 years losing the saw mills and Simplot falling over and this is another major kick in the butt for the local people out here that won’t have any footy to go to.
“Probably the next step is that we fight tooth and nail, Winnaleah and the Crows to try and keep the union alive and play some footy against one another for another year but at least it gives the kids somewhere to play footy.”
Breen said the four NEFU clubs had been disagreeing about everything at their meetings and had agreed for clubs that wanted to apply to the NTFA to do so.
“But our members (Crows) wanted to keep the union alive and keep fighting for it for the sake of our kids so we didn’t apply.”
Winnaleah president Gavin Steel said the NTFA decision was the “worse-case scenario” that they were hoping wouldn’t happen.
“We have been trying to stay positive as a club with a lot of negative stuff going around on social media that we can still provide a game of footy for our boys and senior boys if they are keen to stick in there. “The thing that came out of our meeting was that the clubs have decided to keep the juniors alive in the NEFU in a roster in 2017 and what we can do with the help of AFL Tas to finding a solution in the North-East.”
TFC general manager Jackson Hills said the remaining NEFU clubs did not want to fold and were determined to continue to provide opportunity for their kids to play football while at the same time looking at how they can move into a competition in Launceston in years to come. “We knew there may be union clubs left who might find it difficult to continue with footy in the way they have in the past – we knew that was coming and we focused on the hand that was there. “As difficult as the situation is – I would like to commend Ian Morrison and Kirk Wagner for the way they have worked with us because it hasn’t been easy for both groups and we will continue to work with them and the NTJFA on the future of footy.”
