Representatives from both clubs met with the NTFA on Thursday night whereby the junior hierarchy informed new senior club president Michael Hazelman that it would no longer be contributing financially to his organisation.

The decision has left the senior Hawks in limbo with a substantial hole in its budget for next season.

It is understood the junior club is in negotiations with St Patrick’s Football Club to form some sort of an alliance should Prospect seniors fold or not be granted a NTFA licence.

It is also believed the senior Hawks have a fortnight to compile a viable business case before a D-Day meeting with the NTFA board.

Hazelman replaced Victor Marshall several weeks ago and is in charge of leading a young and inexperienced committee, however, he is confident his club will be part of the NTFA division 2 roster in 2018.

The former State League club is still without a coach following Will Stoltenburg’s departure, but Hazelman said playing numbers were OK and that pre-season training was due to start later this month.

“We’re working with the NTFA currently and I don’t have too much more to say at the moment,” he said.

“The NTFA has been fantastic.

“We’re hopeful of a good outcome for everyone involved. 

“Numbers (players) wise we should be pretty good but we’re working through stuff with the NTFA before we proceed any further.

“I don’t really want to comment on that [the meeting with the junior club], it’s probably for those guys to discuss but they’ve made their stance clear.”

Junior club president Chris Ryan said his club was turning its focus to creating a pathway for its players after being accepted into the Southern Tasmanian Junior Football Association’s under-18s competition for next season.

“We still support the Prospect senior club but our main focus is on our own teams… we don’t have a lot to do with the senior club,” Ryan said.

“The senior club helped run the junior canteen this year and that’s probably helped them a bit… but next year we will run our own junior canteen again as we have done for many years previously.”

It is understood the NTFA is also concerned about the health of three other clubs – Uni-Mowbray, Tamar Cats and Old Launcestonians.  

This development comes after the NTFA council voted 24-5 against North East Football Union club Winnaleah’s application to join its division 2 competition next season, largely due to existing clubs struggling to find playing numbers.

NTFA president Paul Reynolds said long-term financial and player viability was always on the agenda.

“There are some aspects of the way Prospect will be managed that needs to be addressed before any final commitment is made by them or the NTFA,” he said.

“They’ve got to demonstrate that they can meet all their commitments... because we have a responsibility for the whole competition to ensure that if a club is granted a licence for a particular year, they can fulfil all of their obligations.

“There were questions that they asked of themselves, that we asked of them and they still need to be addressed.

“There are some clubs that struggled with numbers in 2017 and we’ve asked all clubs to do a self analysis to ensure they’re all viable.

“Some clubs obviously have clearer plans than others, but no other club has raised with us about not being viable in 2018.”

Reynolds said it was inevitable that the NTFA would have to move with the times and hinted at a different looking model into the future. He said scraping the division 1 under-18s competition and enforcing a promotion-relegation system across the two-tiers was not out of the question.