The soon-to-be-introduced NTFA Premier League has caused a stir with Bridgenorth fuming they have missed out on being one of the six clubs selected for the competition.

NTFA clubs Deloraine, Longford, Scottsdale and South Launceston will join current State League outfits Launceston and North Launceston in the new league in 2025.

NTFA president Damien Rhind said seven NTFA clubs applied which means three missed out.

Bridgenorth president Bobby Beams, whose phone was running hot on Friday and Saturday, said the Parrots were blindsided by the decision.

He said the Premier League had been flagged by the NTFA for numerous years and the Parrots had worked closely with them to improve their facilities and become more professional.

"The dialogue had been around what sustainable (club) models look like moving forward," he said.

"Ours was very much exactly what they wanted and even that dialogue happened right up until December 2023.

"Then for some reason the goalposts moved and somehow it all got changed to different municipalities in the area.

"With two from the Launceston council area and only one in every other area around the NTFA."

Beams added: "If they were always going to go for the regional-based teams then they should have made that clear from the start. We wouldn't have wasted our time applying which is a lot of volunteering hours."

Rhind, on Friday, said location wasn't one of the key criteria points but AFL Tasmania's Tom Barwick said "we looked holistically at participation in football within each of the LGAs" which means geography was considered.

Beams said that was an outdated way to look at footy in the North.

"They've put this comp together as though it's 1985, not 2025," he said.

The club was informed on Thursday.

"We're really disappointed and there's now some real trust issues with us and the NTFA and AFL Tas which is really disappointing because we've worked to build relationships and help grow our footy club through the league and that's going to take a bit of working through to get it right," he said.

Asked how Scottsdale, who finished last in the senior men's NTFA premier division in 2023, had been selected over Bridgenorth and Hillwood, Rhind said: "It comes back to the criteria, also we're not talking about how the clubs are performing now, we've got an eye to the future," he said.

"In 2028, we're going to have our own AFL team and we want to support the clubs that have been successful and identified to underpin the VFL and VFLW and the AFL team in years to come.

"We felt that these four clubs best met that criteria currently to fulfill that role in years to come."

Rhind said there was a five-person selection panel that included two AFL Tasmania staff members, two NTFA board members and an independent member with an AFL club background and experience in other community sport.

Beams wondered who had made the final call on the selected clubs.

"It has been a shift in only a matter of weeks," he said.

"Whether this has been a decision from head office in Hobart or even from Melbourne, we're not sure but like it has been with the rest of the footy community, it's completely shocked us."

Beams said the club, which has worked hard to recruit in recent years, feared losing its most-talented male and female players to the top league.

Beams shared his view on the reasoning Bridgenorth didn't stack up against the criteria.

"That's a cop out to avoid answering tough questions because it's obvious that if they were really strict on criteria there would be clubs in the (selected) six that wouldn't be in there," he said.

Bridgenorth senior men's coach Oli Cook said the selection panel's concerns about the Parrots' submission related to sustainability.

"Concerns were raised that the Launceston Football Club is in close proximity and that data doesn't reflect population growth in Legana or West Tamar," he said.

"I find this interesting as according to state growth, West Tamar is well above the state average in population growth.

"So much so, that the State Government has invested 34 million dollars into building a brand new primary school to support and guide 350 new students."

He said Bridgenorth's facilities also came into question.

"This is in stark contradiction to only six months ago when the NTFA deemed Bridgenorth suitable for finals games and were still happy to award us a final, in which we broke attendance records," Cook said.

New changerooms were opened in 2023 and Beams said $2 million had been spent on facilities in the past 10 years.

Cook said the Parrots' junior pathway was also considered a drawback of their application.

Bridgenorth doesn't have juniors from under-11 to under-16.

"Although there are no official ties with the Tamar Valley Demons, 40 per cent of our under-18s cohort come from the Tamar Demons," he said.

He noted Bridgenorth players and people coached numerous of the Demons' junior teams.

Cook said Bridgenorth had set themselves up as a professional outfit, filling roles such as a full-time physiotherapist and qualified club counselor.

"We are in the healthiest place a club could be right now and absolutely primed and ready for the challenge that has been taken away from us," he said.

Rhind was asked about the clubs that were arguably stiff to miss out on being selected.

"The NTFA and AFL Tas have played a part in delivering the outcomes to every club that was part of the process and they weren't easy conversations," he said.

"If I was in their position and being notified of being unsuccessful, I'd be highly frustrated, emotional, all those human instinctive responses when we come across something we really didn't think was going to eventuate or we don't like.

"Change is massive here and change is difficult ... there are always going to be parties who change doesn't suit.

"But for us, once that emotion has subsided, it's time to have another conversation ... and work with them to continue to be the best they can be and find their sustainability point in the football landscape in the North."