State League's imminent demise labelled 'an awful backwards step'

Former North Hobart president and head of Sport and Recreation in Tasmania, Craig Martin believes the move to get rid of the TSL has been on the AFL's agenda for years and will be detrimental to the state's scheduled entry into the national competition.

"You're not going to fill the proposed VFL team that will underpin our AFL team with regional players," he said.

"The gap between TSL clubs and regional clubs is massive and I have grave fears for the future of aspirational clubs in the state - particularly the Northern clubs North Launceston and Launceston - by going to regional competitions. They will unquestionably lose talented players as a result of playing in a regional competition.

"It's clear that the process to incorporate them into a northern regional competition is a complete mess and my understanding is that it's not going well incorporating the southern clubs into a regional competition either."

The comments follow the Bombers and Blues' reluctance to embrace the proposed NTFA competition involving Scottsdale, Deloraine, Longford and South Launceston set up to replace the TSL next season.

The AFL's timeline towards the Tasmania Devils joining in 2028 had the TSL ending after this season with the state joining the VFL from 2025.

Martin echoed concerns that the VFL return will not happen as planned and said involvement from Melbourne was contributing to declining player numbers.

"The AFL's bizarre obsession with controlling everything has seen the game in Tasmania wither on the vine. Male participation in footy in Tasmania has dropped alarmingly over the past 25 years.

"Clubs are falling over year-in year-out with West Ulverstone and Natone the latest to sadly bite the dust in what was once a great footy heartland, the North-West Coast. Last season the famous Glenorchy footy club didn't field a reserves team and New Norfolk forfeited a game due to lack of numbers."

Martin, who was Demons president from 2017-22 and head of the successful Bring North Hobart Home movement, advocated an independent commission football model similar to South Australia and Western Australia "based on what their states want and need, not what the AFL demands and tells them".

He said the sport is thriving in states where an elite-level club competition underpins AFL teams.

Martin questioned the AFL's appointment process in the state and quoted high-profile examples from both ends of the state of elite players' fears for the future.

"North Launceston's co-captain Fletcher Bennett told media in July last year that he would leave the state to play elsewhere if North was forced into a regional competition.

"Lauderdale's respected and knowledgeable coach Allen Christensen is on the public record on many occasions imploring the game's administrators to keep the TSL. What would Allen know? He's only reached footy's Everest, playing in Geelong's 2011 premiership team."

Calling for a TSL salary cap of $250,000, the return of a North-West team and a "properly-resourced statewide women's competition", Martin said the value of the TSL was demonstrated by last year's rep game victory over Queensland at North Hobart Oval.

But he said lack of leadership in the state was a major reason why he relinquished the presidency of North Hobart.

"Instead of treating clubs as partners and allies, AFL Tasmania refused to listen and just ploughed on regardless with their own agendas, including getting rid of the TSL, presumably following orders from Docklands.

"The arrival of an AFL team will not be a magic bullet for fixing the ills of the game here if the leadership of the game in Tasmania is not drastically improved and the structure of the sport here is not more aspirational and more independent of the AFL.

"We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change these things with the advent of our AFL team and perhaps it's still not too late. Someone needs to stand up and make sure it's not too late and we don't blow this opportunity. It's now or never."