Football NT: Club leaders get in stoush with FNT administrators

The growing division between Football NT and the community has been laid bare in an email chain, where clubs have continued the call against the body’s elite academy. Read the latest.

Football NT email exchange.

A frosty email exchange between a senior club leader and Football NT concerning an elite academy has exposed the growing divide in the community.

The tense correspondence culminated in a federation employee stating the “highest level” club juniors will “ever reach” is senior level.

An email chain, with half-a-dozen clubs carbon copied in and obtained by the NT News, shed further light on the strained relationship between the Territory’s peak body and club land.

An FNT administrator unloaded on a senior Darwin Olympic club member, accusing their club of poor treatment of FNT staff members at game day events.

The outburst followed a back-and-forth between the senior Olympic club member and FNT over fixture changes to a junior competition.

The Olympic member slammed the late fixture change, which resulted in the North Australian Football Academy receiving an extra game and finishing the regular season as premiers.

The email exchange occurred weeks before FNT posted a statement claiming it was “not aware of any conflict of interest claims” on September 14 in response to a previous article.

The Darwin Football Stadium at Marrara. Picture: Harry Brill

The administrator responded in a 1000-word email bemoaning community division around the NAFA program and maintained junior leagues were administered impartially.

However, a particular line within the tirade drew the ire of a junior coach, with the administrator appearing to diminish the footballing ambitions of club players.

“At some point you will need to accept that some kids aspire to be more than a Darwin Olympic player where the highest level they will ever reach is Darwin Olympic MPL or WPL,” they said.

“At some point you will need to at the very least acknowledge, if not accept, that players deserve the chance to at least be competitive when they attend nationals or tournaments as opposed to always being the Territory team that gets beaten 10-nil when playing against interstate teams.”

Football NT CEO Bruce Stalder.

A local junior coach told the NT News he was “not surprised” by the email.

“That wouldn’t happen in the NTFL or in league, but in football that’s pretty standard here,” he said.

“My boys would easily make NAFA anyway if it wasn’t thousands of dollars - the most talented kids can barely pay their club rego, so if there’s anything stopping them (from going further) it’s the massive rego fees.”

FNT chief executive Bruce Stalder said the aspirations of all players were of equal consideration to the body, and called on his staff and the clubs to work respectfully around such matters.

“FNT expects its staff and our clubs to work collaboratively and with respect,” Stalder said.

“As the governing body for the sport, we must try and meet the aspirations of all players.

“No aspiration is more important than another, it is just a different football journey for different players.”

Darwin Olympic declined to comment when approached by the NT News.

Originally published as Football NT: Club leaders get in stoush with FNT administrators