Launceston City looks in some danger of entering the 2019 season without having a women's side in either one of the two competitions.
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The club announced on Tuesday ongoing preseason struggles with playing numbers had forced its hand.
Football Federation Tasmania presented a deadline to affiliating a side in the Women's Super League, but City decided to join Taroona in declining the invitation.
"This time of the year is hard with all the sporting commitments and numbers are always a bit low for preseason," City captain-coach Selina Steventon said.
"But we usually have a bigger commitment than what we've got at this stage. We just couldn't hold off - well, FFT pushed for a decision.
"I say a decision but when you only have 11 players, then it's not really a decision.
"You just have to draw the line and say we don't have enough players."
But the scenario could become a whole lot worse for the proud club that has been a genuine contender for the statewide title over its only two full WSL seasons so far.
City only has an additional "two or three" players to add to the current squad, who are all no guarantee to stay on to play in the second-tier Northern Championship.
"We sure hope not, but everything is still up in the air at this stage," Steventon said.
"There's a few players who came along to play at the top level, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens."
But Steventon insisted she was confident the club could manage with a smaller squad in the championship compared to the WSL where travel time is the biggest factor.
"Hopefully we can have a competitive team in that," she said. "So I just would like to use this year to rebuild and bring the youth through, work on the juniors and put plans in place to attract new players next year.
"Hopefully we can get back into the state league."
City had lost nine of its best starting 11 from last season.
But Steventon replaced Luigi Gugliotti and added Darren Cook from Northern Rangers NPL assistant duties.
"It's very disappointing for me, the players, the club and women's football," she said.
"We know that Taroona pulled out too, but I just think the game is in a bad way at the moment."
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Andrew Mathieson
The day I realised I wasn't good enough to play for St Kilda or be the No.1 spinner for Australia was when I realised journalism was the closest I could come to follow my passion for sport. And it's not just about the scores for me. It's the back story behind the game.
The day I realised I wasn't good enough to play for St Kilda or be the No.1 spinner for Australia was when I realised journalism was the closest I could come to follow my passion for sport. And it's not just about the scores for me. It's the back story behind the game.
