Hills said 15 leagues and more seniors playing the game than juniors on an island with about 500,000 people was a serious issue that administrators are also slowing getting on top of.

“Clearly playing numbers is becoming a challenge too, with many players doubling up in seniors and reserves to get sides through,” he said.

“This isn’t new, it’s been happening for years and in many ways has being masking the problem we need to solve.

“It’s only now we are seeing some cracks in the teams-clubs, whether it’s in the North-East, North-West or even Tamar more recently.

“As the landscape changes, we need to evolve our competition model to remain sustainable in the long term.”

With increased funding from AFL House there has been a shift in focus towards Auskick, school and junior programs in the past 12 months.

Hills said Tasmanian Auskick participation numbers are up 25 per cent and that the game is in close to 62 per cent of schools – a 35 per cent jump.

“This work needs to continue and we need to ensure these players are transitioning into junior football clubs but of course that’s a long-term play, it will take six to seven years before those increases are felt in senior footy,” he said.

“What we are doing right now is working with the leagues to roll out competitive balance policies that can have a more immediate effect.”

Seven of nine senior competitions have implemented a player points system with the rest adopting the concept this season and Hills said a cascading salary cap system for the State League, premier regional and community competitions was on the horizon.

“The next phase is to address the issue of escalating player payments – similar to Victoria, we will be looking to support leagues with these salary cap policies,” he said.

“What I don’t think is well known is that AFL Tasmania don’t run these competitions, they are independently run.

“We are working with all leagues to move down the path of a more consistent affiliation model, similar to other mainstream sports, where more support can be provided to police these systems and support league administration.

“The football council has a strategy to set up three regional hubs across Tasmania that will be able to support leagues administer these activities whilst still remaining independent in their decision making.”

Hills said the AFL’s integrity unit would be asked to help volunteer-led leagues investigate any salary cap breaches to ensure guidelines were strictly followed.