Coach Bingo, Rumours and Other Bits and Pieces

The rumour mill is going off.

It must be that time of year.

The season has barely finished and already there is enough happening around Tasmanian football to keep the phone calls, messages and coffee catch-ups going for weeks.

So rather than one subject today, here are a few snippets from around the grounds.

Coach Bingo

Devonport, Launceston City and Clarence Zebras are all looking for men's coaches.

Riverside is after a coach for its Championship side.

And I'm hearing another coach may have tendered his resignation too.

Then there are the coaches who already have jobs.

I'm also hearing that some currently contracted coaches may be looking for a change of scenery and putting their names forward for some of the vacancies.

Perhaps several of the vacancies.

Whether all of that proves correct, who knows.

That's why they're called rumours.

But with this many jobs potentially in play and some familiar names apparently appearing on more than one application list, get your cards ready.

Coach Bingo has well and truly begun.

And the WSL isn't entirely immune either.

Devonport and Kingborough are on the hunt for coaches as well.

Which raises another question.

Are there actually enough appropriately licensed coaches to go around?

With vacancies across both the men's and women's competitions, surely we're going to see some interesting names and perhaps a few imports appearing in Tasmania for 2027.

Tasmania has always been a good launching pad for ambitious coaches.

Come down here, take charge of an NPL or WSL side, build a reputation and use it as a stepping stone to something bigger.

We've seen plenty of coaches build their careers here before moving on.

But let's be serious.

Anyone moving interstate to Tasmania specifically to coach at this level is going to have to really love football.

These aren't A-League coaching salaries.

Add the cost of moving interstate, finding somewhere to live and earning a living.

Suddenly an NPL or WSL coaching job in Tasmania isn't the most compelling financial proposition in Australian football.

So Coach Bingo might extend interstate this year.

This could get interesting.

Show me the money

It's not just coaches who are getting phone calls.

Players are being approached too and I'm hearing some pretty lucrative offers are being put in front of them.

That's hardly unusual at this time of year.

One season finishes and the recruitment battle for the next one starts almost immediately.

Who stays?

Who goes?

And who suddenly discovers a lifelong passion for a club 200 kilometres away?

It's all part of the fun.

Seven? Eight? 21? 28? Anybody?

Then there is the small matter of what everyone is actually signing up to play in next year.

Football Tasmania's original plan was clear.

Ten NPL teams in 2026, the bottom two relegated and eight teams in 2027.

But Riverside has now announced it won't participate in the NPL or WSL in 2027.

So what happens now?

Seven teams?

Does somebody come up and make it eight?

Twenty-one rounds?

Twenty-eight?

Promotion and relegation?

A playoff?

There seems to be an expectation that we may know more on Friday.

Which brings me back to the chosen ones.

I've written before about the group selected to provide input into the future structure of our competitions.

When the announcement eventually arrives, it will be fascinating to see what influence that process actually had.

Did their discussions materially shape the final structure?

Did they make recommendations that were adopted?

Were others rejected?

Did Football Tasmania change its thinking as a result of the consultation?

Or will we be left wondering whether it was little more than lip service and the destination had already been decided?

I don't know.

But surely meaningful consultation should leave some fingerprints on the final product.

Perhaps on Friday we'll find out whether the chosen ones really were chosen to help shape the future.

Or merely chosen to be consulted.

Nick's home. But he can't play.

Meanwhile, our Nick is back in Tasmania.

But he can't play for South Hobart in the Australian Championship.

I've written about the registration window situation previously.

Nick had a decision to make.

Play for Northcote City in its promotion playoff against Melbourne Victory or make himself available for South Hobart and the Australian Championship.

He chose Northcote.

They won on penalties and secured promotion to NPL Victoria.

Hard to argue with that decision.

But the consequence is that Nick can't now register for South Hobart for the Australian Championship.

So he's home.

He's fit.

And he can't play.

And it turns out Nick isn't the only player caught by the timing.

Bruno Fornaroli has just had a remarkable season in Victoria.

At 39, he scored 22 goals for Avondale and won the NPL Victoria Golden Boot.

Then last Saturday Avondale faced Oakleigh Cannons in the Grand Final.

After 120 goalless minutes it went to penalties.

Bruno scored his.

Avondale won the shootout and became NPL Victoria champions.

But Bruno had faced a decision of his own.

He could have moved to another club before the Grand Final.

That would have kept him eligible for the Australian Championship.

Instead, he stayed and played the Grand Final for Avondale.

He chose the big game sitting immediately in front of him.

He won it.

Sound familiar?

Nick chose a promotion playoff.

Bruno chose a Grand Final.

Both chose their teammates and the game in front of them.

Both won.

And neither will now be playing in the Australian Championship.

I'm hearing Bruno's next destination might be APIA.

I haven't been able to confirm that one, so into the rumour file it goes.

After a decade in Melbourne and Perth, it would be his first stint in Sydney.

Perhaps Mrs Fornaroli fancies a look at the Harbour City for the family.

And why not?

But Nick and Bruno are good examples of the strange consequences created by the Australian Championship registration window.

Two footballers faced with a choice between walking away from an enormous game for their existing club or preserving their eligibility for a competition that hadn't yet started.

Both chose the enormous game.

I'd suggest most footballers would.

Sometimes football regulations produce some very peculiar outcomes.

Are we looking for our news in the wrong place?

And while all of this is going on, I've been thinking about something else.

I've written before about the lack of Tasmanian football coverage in The Mercury.

I still think our game deserves proper journalism and I still think there are stories in Tasmanian football that should be told.

But perhaps I also need to stop getting quite so hung up on traditional media.

Because maybe that's simply not where the future lies.

I read a story in The Guardian this morning about the BBC axing some of the sports bulletins on its television news channel.

Part of the thinking behind the decision is simple.

By the time the sports bulletin comes on, supporters already know what happened.

They've seen the goal.

They know the result.

They've watched the highlights.

They've argued about it on social media.

And they've probably watched the goal another six times.

The BBC is responding by directing more of its resources towards digital content, online analysis, social media and YouTube.

Maybe there is a lesson in that for us.

Think about how we actually consume Tasmanian football now.

If I want a result, Tassie Football Central is generally going to give it to me far more quickly than traditional media.

And, God help me, sometimes the live betting apps are even quicker.

You can be standing at the ground wondering what the score is and somebody's phone already knows.

That's the world we're living in.

Club Facebook pages.

Instagram.

Tassie Football Central.

Live scoring.

Blogs.

Podcasts.

Supporters producing their own content.

And of course the Tasmanian football rumour mill, which remains considerably faster than any known telecommunications network.

Maybe we shouldn't get too hung up on newspapers not giving us the match reports, scores and tables they once did.

Because I'm not convinced that's the future anyway.

Why wait until tomorrow morning to find out what happened at three o'clock this afternoon?

We don't consume news like that anymore.

At least I don't.

But there is one thing I don't think we should lose.

Journalism.

Because instant information and journalism aren't the same thing.

There is a difference between knowing South Hobart won 3-1 and somebody explaining what happened and why.

There is a difference between hearing that a coach has resigned and someone asking why so many coaching positions are vacant.

There is a difference between seeing a league table on your phone and asking whether the competition itself is working.

And there is certainly a difference between hearing that next year's NPL might have seven teams and somebody actually asking Football Tasmania what the plan is.

Perhaps that's where traditional media still has an important role.

Not telling us what happened.

We're pretty bloody good at finding that out for ourselves now.

Tell us why it happened and what it means.

Anyway...

So that's Thursday morning in Tasmanian football.

The coaching merry-go-round is spinning.

Players are receiving offers.

Apparently some coaches with jobs are looking for different jobs.

We don't quite know how many teams will be playing in the NPL next year.

We don't know whether we'll get 21 rounds, 28 rounds, promotion and relegation, playoffs or something else.

We might know more tomorrow.

Our Nick is home but can't play in the Australian Championship.

Bruno Fornaroli won the Victorian Golden Boot and an NPL championship but can't play in the Australian Championship either.

The BBC is cutting sports bulletins because people increasingly get their sports news somewhere else.

And somewhere in Tasmania right now somebody knows somebody who knows somebody who has definitely heard where a particular coach is going next year.

Whether any of it is true is another matter entirely.

It's only Thursday.

Plenty of time for another square on the Coach Bingo card before the weekend.