How many games do top men’s teams actually play
And what Tasmania’s numbers quietly reveal
This post follows an earlier reflection on minutes, squad management and the lived reality inside short seasons. Together, they form part of an ongoing attempt to understand how the structures we build shape the football we end up with, not through blame or solutions but through observation.
After writing about minutes, squads, and the lived reality inside an eighteen-round season, I wanted to step back and look at something simpler.
How many league games senior men’s teams actually play.
Not best-case scenarios.
Not finals.
Not cup runs.
Just the base number of guaranteed competition matches a league provides.
When you line Tasmania up against the rest of Australia and then against the football world more broadly, the gap becomes hard to ignore.
Where Tasmania has been, and where 2026 sits
For many recent seasons, NPL Tasmania has been an eight-team competition playing a triple round robin.
That structure delivered 21 league matches per club and it became the accepted shape of a senior season in this state.
In 2026, that changes.
Football Tasmania has confirmed the men’s NPL will expand to ten teams but the regular season will reduce to eighteen rounds, followed by finals.
At the end of the season, the competition will contract back to eight teams, with the bottom two finishing clubs removed for 2027.
There has been no indication that promotion and relegation will operate beyond this one-off reset.
This matters, because what is being introduced is not long-term movement between tiers but a tightening of access combined with fewer guaranteed games.
How Tasmania compares to other small federations
It is often assumed that Tasmania’s shorter season simply reflects being a smaller federation.
The numbers do not support that.
In the 2025 season, senior men’s NPL competitions in other smaller or comparable federations played:
South Australia: 22 league rounds
Northern NSW: 22 league rounds
Western Australia: 22 league rounds
Tasmania itself played 21 rounds in 2024 and 2025.
Even the smallest NPL federations, such as the ACT, have historically delivered around 21 league matches per season. The Northern Territory operates outside the NPL structure and is not a like-for-like comparison.
So this is not a case of Tasmania always operating at the low end.
In 2026, Tasmania will deliberately reduce its top tier to 18 league matches, placing it below every other NPL competition in the country, including federations facing similar logistical challenges.
Eighteen games in a national context
Across Australia, senior men’s NPL competitions typically provide:
26 league games in Victoria
30 league games in New South Wales
Same country.
Same national competition framework.
Very different assumptions about what constitutes a senior season.
Eighteen league games does not sit at the lower edge of a wide range.
It sits below it.
What the world considers normal
Internationally, the contrast sharpens further.
In most established football countries, top-tier league seasons are built around:
38 league matches in England, Spain, and Italy
34 league matches in Germany and France
That is the league alone.
Domestic cup competitions sit on top of that foundation. They do not replace it.
Players live in rhythm.
Week after week.
Enough repetition to absorb mistakes and recover form.
Even Australia’s professional tier operates on a larger base.
The A-League Men provides 26 regular-season matches before finals.
So when we describe the NPL as the highest level of senior football in Tasmania, it is worth being honest about the comparison.
Our top state league offers fewer guaranteed league matches than almost every comparable competition, nationally and internationally.
What a credible benchmark actually looks like
This is not about pretending Tasmania should mirror Europe.
But there is a reasonable middle ground.
Nationally, 22 to 26 league matches is already considered normal for senior NPL competitions. Internationally, anything under thirty is viewed as light.
Against that context, eighteen is not just conservative.
It is structurally limiting.
Decisions about competition length are often framed as unavoidable. In reality, they reflect choices about what level of strain the system is prepared to absorb.
If we are serious about development, retention and performance, the benchmark should at least sit within the national NPL range, not below it.
Quality opposition changes standards
This is not theoretical.
Having recently played NPL clubs such as Marconi Stallions, Wollongong Wolves and Heidelberg United, the difference in tempo, pressure and decision-making was evident.
These are clubs coming out of much larger league programs.
In 2025:
Marconi and Wollongong Wolves each played 30 league matches in NPL NSW
Heidelberg United played 22 league matches in NPL Victoria
State cup competitions then sit on top of that base:
NSW clubs contest the Waratah Cup, typically adding several knockout matches depending on progression
Victorian clubs contest the Dockerty Cup, where Heidelberg’s run to the final added six additional high-quality games
Tasmanian clubs, by contrast, are operating in a system that delivered 21 league matches in recent seasons, dropping to 18 in 2026, with the Lakoseljac Cup layered on top.
The difference is not talent.
It is exposure.
More league games mean more repetition under pressure, more consequences and more opportunities for standards to harden.
When players are regularly tested, standards rise.
When they are not, progress is slower.
What this gap means for Tasmanian football
The consequences are not abstract.
They show up when Tasmanian teams step into national tournaments.
They show up when players trial interstate.
They show up when coaches try to bridge the gap between strong training environments and elite match demands.
Players are not underprepared because they lack effort.
They are underexposed.
The ceiling for Tasmanian football is shaped less by talent than by how often that talent is tested under genuine pressure.
Cup competitions add games, but not certainty
Cup competitions matter.
Tasmanian clubs contest the Lakoseljac Cup.
Interstate NPL clubs contest the Waratah Cup (NSW) and Dockerty Cup (Vic).
But these are knockout competitions.
For some clubs, a cup run may add several matches.
For others, it may add one game and then elimination.
Cup football is unpredictable by design.
It cannot be relied upon to provide consistent match volume across a squad, across a season, or across a league.
At best, cups supplement a strong league calendar.
They do not replace one.
A long-standing alternative that never quite landed
For many years, while I was president of SHFC and with the continuous encouragement of Ken Morton as senior NPL coach, we advocated for a four-round season with eight teams.
A true double home-and-away, played twice.
Equal.
Predictable.
More games.
Four rounds would have delivered 28 league matches, while maintaining competitive balance.
The pushback was familiar.
Volunteer burnout.
Travel.
Ground access.
Capacity.
Those concerns are real.
But they now sit alongside another reality.
Clubs at this level increasingly operate as small businesses, managing compliance, facilities, staff, academies and year-round programs. (Plenty of material for a standalone blog post here)
Adaptation is already happening, whether we acknowledge it or not.
Football’s place in the sporting ecosystem matters
There is another layer to this.
In many countries, football is the dominant sport.
It shapes calendars, ground access, and scheduling priorities.
Australia is different.
Football here is one of many sports competing for finite resources. Grounds, volunteers, council priorities, media attention and funding are shared with codes that are historically dominant and deeply entrenched.
Football is often fitted into available windows rather than planned as the organising framework.
The outcome is predictable.
Shorter competitions.
Compromised calendars.
Reliance on workarounds.
This is not about ambition or size.
It is about alignment between what we call elite football and how we structure it.
What this follow-up is really saying
The first post was about minutes and people.
This one is about scale, quality, and intent.
Tasmania’s top men’s competition now sits:
Below other small federations nationally
Below the broader NPL standard
Well below professional and international benchmarks
At the same time, access is being tightened and consequences increased.
Fewer guaranteed games.
Higher pressure.
Limited exposure to elite opposition.
If standards are to rise, the pathway is not mysterious.
More high-quality games produce better football.
The number of games a league schedules tells you exactly how serious it is about development, retention and performance.
And right now, eighteen does not say what we think it says.