Launceston’s touch dominance stretches to six

Not even the prospect of a weekend spent downing oysters at Festivale could entice 120 of Launceston’s best touch footballers away from taking on the South and North-West in Hobart, with several of the North’s 12 sides finishing undefeated. 

Amelia Bransden’s open women’s side was one of the standouts, winning all five of its matches comfortably to blitz the division. 

“We had a really good tournament,” the West Launceston 18-year-old said.

“We played amazingly as a team, we gelled really well and it was awesome to play such good touch football.

“It’s awesome to go away and play with the girls seeing as we play against each other here in the local comp.

“You make awesome friendships, not just with the LTA girls but the Southern touch girls and the Devonport girls when they do go.”

Launceston will host the state cup when it returns next year, with LTA general manager Patty Bessell confident that the North’s depth of playing talent, coaches and volunteers will remain a cut above the rest.  

“We probably had pretty limited preparation for it this year ... but we still managed to take 120 players away and to be able to pretty convincingly win the competition like that is pretty impressive,” Bessell said.

“We understand there might be some changes to the format and timing, and there’ll be rule changes between this season and next season, but we’ll be pretty confident going in again next year.”