UTAS Stadium is also the home of North Launceston Football Club.

And yet, in the words of president Thane Brady, the club was not represented at the launch because "we couldn't find anyone with genuine excitement or interest".

Such is the utter disdain that the perennial State League title challengers reserved for the competition.

Cross-town rivals Launceston were also absent and blamed late notice, but it was clear they shared similar enthusiasm for the concept.

When journalists began rocking up at the venue formerly known as "Tasmania's home of AFL", even the most numerically-challenged among them began questioning the sums as only four of the six teams appeared to be represented.

While multiple representatives had travelled in from South Launceston, Longford, Deloraine and even Scottsdale, nobody appeared to have trotted down two flights of stairs from the Northern Bombers' clubrooms.

The glaring absence of the two clubs who between them won eight of the nine state flags from 2014 to 2022 did not escape the highly-trained scope of Northern Tasmania's most vigilant reporters.

Both AFL Tasmania and the NTFA were asked where the clubs were.

AFL Tasmania head Damian Gill handballed to community football manager Tom Barwick who said the day was more about celebrating the four clubs that were present rather than questioning the two who weren't.

NTFA president Damien Rhind - who insists the new league will be a change for the better - echoed the sentiment and even blamed The Examiner for daring to suggest that "the two most successful teams of the modern State League era" were likely inclusions even though he was quoted saying exactly that in an AFL Tasmania press release four months ago.

Given such an inauspicious beginning, it was little surprise when the proposed competition began attracting plenty of feedback.

The comments beneath the NTFA Facebook post were soon well into three figures and featuring some rather unflattering words.

"Embarrassing", "uncompetitive", "bewildering", "joke", "dumbfounded", "stupid" and "shambles" were just some of them. So were "dog's" and "breakfast", in that order.

Many respondents felt the teams were selected based on geography rather than merit, pointing out that last season's two premier division grand finalists were missing but the wooden spoon winners weren't.

One post suggested: "I think some of them need a drug test", a comment which would appear to be extremely unlikely given what was about to emerge about the code's approach towards such substances.

Another questioned the legitimacy of calling the division the "premier" league.

"I fail to fathom how a six-team competition will generate any excitement," said a post. "Once a month you play the same teams again and only two miss finals? How vision impaired and boring."

Many questioned the absence of George Town, Bridgenorth, Hillwood, Old Scotch and Rocherlea in favour of the two NTFA teams with the longest premiership droughts.

Fans with long memories lamented the heyday of the NEFU when Scottsdale could field teams in two different competitions and enjoyed derbies against teams like Branxholm, Winnaleah and Ringarooma - all now gone.

Similar comments followed The Examiner's stories about the situation with one urging the introduction of a mercy rule and another suggesting that - like the newly-launched Tassie Devils - Scottsdale would have hit 100k members since the announcement.

"Pathetic", "incompetent", "detrimental" and "dumb" were added to the saga's lexicon along with the observation: "A South-centric administration who kowtow to the AFL raises the question, why do we need them and what benefit are they to football in our state? The supposed flow-on benefits to grassroots football as a result of having our own AFL team is a furphy."

However, not even Facebook's finest could hold a torch to plain-speaking Bombers president Thane "Tell it like it is" Brady.

Adding "chaos", "misguided", "ridiculous" and "failure" to the ever-growing list of helpful wordage, Brady likened the proposed union to a loveless arranged marriage devoid of love and happiness and pointed out that North had not applied to be part of it.

"It's a joke throughout our community," he said.

"In one decisive move by the AFL grasping the opportunity to slip one by under the cloak of Tasmania picking up its own team, the power shift to centralise football in Hobart in now a reality.

"It's inevitable our club will fall back in standard which is a real shame for the players, coaches and all involved.

"It's as misguided as opening a huge amount of primary and secondary schools but closing the northern universities."

Launceston's president Scott Stephens was a bit more tactful than his Bombers equivalent, but that was not a particularly high bar.

"We are not satisfied with the direction of the new league and we are not satisfied AFL Tas have made every effort to establish a strong and sustainable competition for the North of the state," Stephens said, adding that the Blues have called a meeting this week to discuss their future options.

Amid all this controversy, the final season of the current State League began with North handing Launceston a 24.23 (167) to 0.5 (5) shellacking.

Given Scottsdale won one out of 16 games in the NTFA Premier Divisions last season, the margin for their first match against North Launceston looks set to provide Northern Tasmanian journalists with a far tougher mathematical test than the one posed by the league launch.