Tasmanian grassroots football suffers as AFL focuses on ‘elite’

UPDATED: A UNIFIED Tasmanian club from under 12 to senior footy is the pathway to a state AFL team, chief executive Gillon McLachlan says. WATCH THE PRESS CONFERENCE

AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan. Picture: MICHAEL KLEIN

BRETT STUBBS

UPDATED: A UNIFIED Tasmanian club from under 12 to senior footy is the pathway to a state AFL team, chief executive Gillon McLachlan says.

The steering committee into the state’s footy future announced a return to the TAC Cup in 2019, a girls’ 2020 TAC Cup team and a VFL team in 2021.

Mr McLachlan said the code has “dropped the ball” in Tasmania and was committed to providing a foundation from junior to senior football.

The AFL has committed $1.4 million to Tasmanian football next year and will create hubs in each of the three regions.

More to come …

AFL Tasmania chief Trisha Squires talking to reporters after Gillon McLachlan's press conference at Bellerive Oval today. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

EARLIER: WHILE the AFL’s steering committee has been focused on the TSL and talent pathway, the foundation of the sport in the state has just about collapsed.

With AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan in Hobart today the Mercury can reveal the full decline in traditional participation in the state, especially compared to other football heartland states.

The Mercury has previously asked the AFL and AFL Tasmania numerous times for male youth participation rates with no luck, and now it is obvious why.

While women’s football continues to surge in Tasmania (from just seven teams to 88 teams in four years) and male participation in other traditional football states has grown 5-20 per cent between 2006 to 20017, according to AFL Tasmania’s own Junior/Youth Football Review the state’s male participation has fallen 14.7 per cent over the same time.

A breakdown of the figures is even more alarming. The number of juniors (eight to 13-year-olds) has fallen 10 per cent and the seniors have fallen 12 per cent, but it is youth football that is the main area of concern.

For boys in the youth category — ages 13 to 18 and the key conduit between children’s and senior football — there has been a fall of 22 per cent in just over a decade. It has resulted in 26 fewer youth teams in that time (a rate of more than two a season) and as a consequence the loss of 21 senior teams across Tasmania.

To be fair to the AFL, it only took full control of AFL Tasmania from the previous board-led administration in April 2015.

The report says there is not only a problem with recruitment but also retention, and the future does not look rosy.

“These two factors suggest that participation in senior men’s football in Tasmania will continue to have several years of decline ahead as it copes with this historical reduction of youth male players flowing into the system.

“Put simply, senior clubs will continue to struggle to fill the existing numbers of senior men’s teams that exist today …”

News of the declining participation figures comes as the State Government confirmed Premier Will Hodgman and Treasurer Peter Gutwein met with TSL club presidents yesterday as the presidents voiced their concerns over the steering committee process and the likely findings.

Mr McLachlan will this morning announce the committee’s findings in Hobart.