TSL clubs on a collision course with AFL Tasmania over competition’s future

THE seven remaining Tasmanian State League football clubs are so concerned for their future they have called a crisis meeting with AFL Tasmania.

New AFL Tasmania CEO Trisha Squires will face some tough questions form the remaining TSL club presidents. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

THE seven remaining Tasmanian State League football clubs are so concerned for their future they have called a crisis meeting with AFL Tasmania next week to gauge what support they can expect from the powerbrokers at AFL House.

The five southern presidents and their two Launceston colleagues spoke on an all-in phone conference last week to discuss their concerns.

The result was a demand for a face-to-face showdown with AFL Tasmania officials in what is shaping as a baptism of fire for newly appointed football boss Trisha Squires.

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The clubs have a range of burning questions but the biggest is the TSL’s survival in light of Devonport and Burnie’s withdrawal in the past two months.

“All of the clubs agree it is pivotal to find out exactly what the commitment is from AFL Tasmania to the state competition and its constituent clubs and what the AFL is going to do to address the issues with football in Tasmania that has seen two foundation member clubs have to withdraw from the competition,” said Glenorchy president John McCann.

Unrest has been brewing in clubland with the demise of three TSL clubs in the past two seasons — the Prospect Hawks went under in 2016 — and where their combined $300,000 annual share of ­football grants has gone.

The TSL was fully funded to the tune of $1 million a year — $100,000 to each club — until 2023.

“That is one aspect of it,” McCann said.

“There are a range of issues with regards to the competition and the economics of the whole thing that have been put on the agenda to be raised on Thursday.”

The five southern clubs are particularly miffed that the original five northern clubs have deteriorated to two, and that reigning premier North Launceston and preliminary ­finalist Launceston now have access to a vast pool of player talent. They want a third club in Launceston.

“That is another one that will be raised in terms of coming up with a structure that provides an equitable whole-of-state competition — that’s something we will look to have addressed in 2019,” McCann said.

“We would like to make progress on that at the meeting on Thursday.”

The reinstatement of the Tassie Mariners as a full-time member of the TAC Cup under-18 competition will also be discussed.