New Devonport Strikers president Drew Smith has promised he won’t be giving up the fight started by his predecessor Rod Andrews when it comes to the state of the NPL Tasmania competition.
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And like Andrews, Smith has genuine fears for the Strikers’ long-term future in the competition in the expanded 27 round fixture, which requires each club to play 12 home games.
“I am very big on if we are going to have a statewide football competition it has to be sustainable,’’ Smith said on Thursday.
“FFT (Football Federation Tasmania) have a responsibility that if they want this to be their flagship when it comes to soccer in Tasmania then they need to concentrate on what the criteria is when it comes to sustainability.
“Every team having 12 home games simply can’t be the criteria, it has to be a whole host of things such as the travel on clubs and financial contributions, so to simply say ‘here’s 12 homes games’ is an easy way out and doesn’t address the high level strategic issues of a sustainable statewide competition.
“We’ve seen with the TSL what happens when you don’t address those things, so I think this is a dangerous precedent that has been set. I don’t think we could guarantee our future long-term, and the main rationale behind that is our players will not want to continue travelling that sort of distance, so for us this is a real concern.”
Smith revealed that fellow powerhouse South Hobart was on the Strikers’ side, having offered to play a home game at Valley Road, an idea he said was rejected by Football Federation Tasmania.
While the Strikers have allies in South Hobart and Riverside Olympic, not all agree, with Hobart Zebras president Nick Digiovanni vocal about the fact he did not agree with the Strikers’ concerns.
Upon the release of the fixture this month, FFT chief executive Matt Bulkeley said: “Whilst we have carefully considered all options put forward by the Strikers, ultimately we feel that the final roster is one that will provide the greatest competitive balance for all clubs competing in the NPL Tasmania in 2019.
“We will continue to work with Devonport in the coming weeks on other ways we might be able to minimise the impact of the travel next season,’’ he said.
Smith was voted in as the Strikers’ new president last Thursday at the club’s annual general meeting.