The NTFA revealed on Friday that Deloraine, Longford, Scottsdale and South Launceston would join Launceston and North Launceston in the new league in 2025.

NTFA president Damien Rhind revealed there were seven NTFA clubs that applied for the new top-tier competition.

The Examiner understands that Bridgenorth and Hillwood, who have strong senior men's and women's programs, were two of those.

The Parrots just missed last year's senior men's finals and were in the women's decider, while the Sharks played off in the senior men's grand final.

While it's clear the new league's criteria was about more than just recent results, many will point out that Scottsdale recorded just one senior men's win and finished bottom of the ladder in 2023.

Their women's side came second last in the six-team premier division.

AFL Tasmania community football manager Tom Barwick said a thriving junior pathway was a key part of Scottsdale's successful bid.

"Throughout the process we looked through participation not only in the NTFA competition and in the junior competition, but we looked holistically at participation in football within each of the LGAs or the areas where these clubs are participating, that have been successful in coming in," he said.

"The North-Eastern corner of Tasmania is one of the strongest participation areas in terms of penetration into the community.

"So that was a real buoy for Scottsdale in that that region is heavily involved in football and the appetite there for football is strong.

"It won't be without its challenges for Scottsdale and they're aware they are going to need to continue to improve, develop and grow.

"They are not being granted a licence in perpetuity. So over time as the landscape of football changes, we'll review these clubs in time, but there will be a time that's allowed for them to settle in and know they are a premier league club."

He added: "Across the broad spectrum of the club, they have a really strong pathway and that was a key criteria throughout the process - the sustainability of these clubs and pathways within these clubs."

Scottsdale secretary Peter Fish gave the Magpies' perspective.

"We're relieved to have got in," he said.

"But when we looked at the criteria we tick all the boxes.

"We've got seniors, reserves, under-18s, women, juniors and a paid junior development coach so we felt we ticked all the boxes and deserved to be in.

"And from a geographic point of view I think it was important, a club from the North-Eastern area of the state was included in the top league."

Scottsdale didn't have an under-18 boys' side in 2023 but they are re-introducing one for this season.

"That's probably going better than we thought," Fish said.

"It's a bit difficult to get kids playing footy again. The numbers in the (town's) high school have dropped significantly since five or six years ago.

"But we've established a pretty solid junior base and that has obviously assisted us in developing an under-18 team."

The Magpies' junior program includes under-9, under-10, under-11, under-14 and under-16.

"We're getting between 35-45 kids at Auskick and we get them every year and that's a good sign," Fish said.

He added there were more girls playing footy.

"It's led to a situation where we've got 33 women registered to play this year and it comes from that growth in juniors," he said.

Asked about the club's disappointing campaign last year and stepping up to play against Launceston and North Launceston, Fish was confident the Pies could recruit talent in the lead-up.

"It will at least set the standard whereby kids can say 'I can play in the top league if I'm at Scottsdale' and that's important," he said.

He added it was a lot easier to recruit when in the top league.

"For example, this year we've got Jesse Crichton who is going to be playing six or seven games with us," he said.

"Next year he's looking at coming back home full-time.

"He's only a couple of years out of the AFL.

"We'll obviously be chasing people from the Launceston area which has been a part of Scottsdale ever since 1964 when we won our first premiership and they recruited people from Burnie.

"So we need to do that and we understand we need to do that."