NTFA's division one competition will have a new entity running around this season with Uni-Mowbray Eagles changing their name to the University of Tasmania Lions.
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The second name change in the club's history following the initial move from Mowbray Football Club in 1993, the shift comes following a solitary senior win over the past two seasons with president Wayne Thompson welcoming of the decision.
"It's something we've been looking forward to since the end of last year," he said.
"It's a way of the branding, getting our footy club out exposed not just in Tassie but to the students coming from on the mainland to strengthen us to where we should be and where we have been in the past."
ELSEWHERE IN SPORT
Ditching their previous burgundy and yellow strip, the revamped Lions will wear a red, black and gray guernsey in their March 28 round one clash against Old Scotch, with Thompson saying the process was relatively unopposed with the club's life members.
"I think they went through the process in 1993 when it went from Mowbray Football Club to University-Mowbray Football Club.
"I think they can see it now, if we are moving forward and the patterns of football and sport in general that things need to be changed or you will fall behind.
"We've had four or five meetings and all of our life members are in agreeance now for our survival. We are not going to lose our history at all, it's all there in our clubrooms and facilities and we still have the guys coming along - past players and life members."
Bucking the trend of local sport in the past few years with numbers increasing at the University-based club rather than declining, both Thompson and new coach Brodie Tiernan, who takes the reins from Alan Perrin this season, are hoping the change will spark on-field strength.
"The last two years, it started at the beginning of 2017, we started to get an influx of players that were probably more interested in playing and pushing our numbers up for quantity.
"The quantity was good and has been for the past two years but the quality wasn't there so hopefully with this move into the UTAS we can lure some high-quality players to top up."
"We know we need to get better on-field," Tiernan added. "Hopefully attracting the right players this way will help us get better that way."
Playing two years for Uni-Mowbray in 2015 and 2016 with the club making finals in both seasons, the 25-year-old will take on his first senior coaching role with the Lions this year.
With about 20 local players hitting the track for pre-season training, Tiernan predicts more than 40 interstate students will boost the side's numbers, describing the identity change as "massive."
"If people have a footy background playing up in Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney or Brisbane, hopefully they see us as the first club down here.
"They can can come down and go 'yep, I know about the footy club'. It's close, it's convenient, everything's here that they need."
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