Tasmanian Football Has A Structure Problem - And It Goes Much Deeper Than 8 Or 10

2 May

Written By Victoria Morton

There was a conversation on Tassie Football Central recently about the NPL.

Should it be 10 teams or 8?

Plenty of views. Plenty of strong opinions.

And like most of these threads, it didn’t take long before it drifted.

Into development. Into youth. Into depth. Into clubs.

Which is usually a sign the original question isn’t quite the right one, or at least not the whole one.

It got me thinking.

And then it got me remembering.

So firstly, thanks to Matthew for raising it.

Conversations like that matter.

Opinions matter.

Voice matters.

Being heard matters, even if it’s via social media.

Because if we’re not talking about it, nothing changes.

It Used To Be Simpler

And It Adapted To Reality

Before all of this, we had:

Southern Championship
Southern Championship Reserves

Up north, North and North West played together.

Not because it was designed that way.

Because they had to.

There weren’t enough teams to split it.

So the system adapted to the player pool.

Not the other way around.

And then we came together in the cups.

That was the connection point.

That’s where the state met.

Now We’ve Built The Model First

Now we have:

NPL
U21s
Championship
Championship One
And even “social” underneath

That’s a full pyramid.

But the NPL model wasn’t built for Tasmania.

It was applied to Tasmania.

And it assumes a level of depth that we don’t consistently have.

I Looked At All The Ladders

There Was A Pattern

This isn’t opinion.

It’s visible.

Across every level:

Strong teams at the top
A middle that shifts
Clear drop-offs at the bottom

NPL.
U21s.
Championship.
Championship One.

Same pattern.

If the system is working as intended, depth should be improving across all levels.

The ladders suggest otherwise.

So Clubs Are Bridging The Gap

Some clubs concentrate:

NPL + U21

Others stretch:

NPL + U21 + Championship + Championship One

That’s not just a difference in approach.

That’s a difference in burden.

Some clubs are focusing on performance.

Others are carrying players, pathways and opportunity.

Both sit on the same ladder.

They are not doing the same job.

This Is A Saturday Problem

All of this lands in one place.

Saturday.

Who plays.

Who sits.

Who gets minutes.

Who doesn’t.

If you don’t run a Championship team:

You lose over-21s.

If you do:

You double your load.

If you add Championship One:

You create depth.

But now you’re running four teams.

This isn’t a structural diagram.

It’s a Saturday juggle.

And sometimes it’s a bloody mess.

And players notice.

If they don’t have a place that feels right for them, they don’t move down the system.

They leave it.

The Season Doesn’t Work

And It’s Costing Clubs

This is the part that frustrates me the most.

We don’t play enough football.

Clubs are charging registration fees that people question.

And I understand why they question them.

But walk in the shoes of a club for five minutes.

Registration doesn’t just cover “playing”.

It covers:

Ground hire
Clubroom rent
Utilities
Playing kit
Training gear
Equipment
Insurance
Travel
Referees
Coaching support
Admin systems
Compliance requirements

The list keeps going.

Clubs are not charging what they like.

They are trying to cover what it costs to exist.

And None Of This Works Without Volunteers

If it wasn’t for volunteer labour, most clubs would be buried.

That’s the reality.

There is no spare capacity.

There is no hidden workforce.

There is no ability to just hire someone to fix it.

Clubs cannot afford paid staff to run this system.

So everything you see is being held together by people giving up their time.

And we keep asking them to do more.

And Then We Cut The Revenue Side

But Keep The Fees
Around $2,500 to nominate a Championship team.
Around $23,000 for NPL.
And that’s just licence and nomination.
That’s before you even kick a ball.

Eighteen rounds.

Home and away once.

Fewer home games than we’ve had before.

Less gate.

Less canteen.

Less opportunity to actually bring money in.

But the licence fee?

That stays the same.

So clubs are:

Generating less
Paying the same
Carrying more

It’s not hard to see what that does.

If the governing body’s bottom line has improved, that money has come from somewhere.

And it hasn’t come from thin air.

Clubs are the ones absorbing it.

This Is Where It Falls Apart

Clubs are told:

Be more professional
Develop more players
Run more teams
Meet higher standards

And then given:

Fewer home games
Less revenue opportunity
The same volunteer base
The same licence costs

It doesn’t add up.

Help Us Out

This isn’t complicated.

If clubs are expected to carry the system…

Then give them the tools to do it.

More football.

Not less.

More opportunities to host games.

More opportunities to generate income.

Because right now, we’ve built a system that costs more to run…

and gives clubs fewer chances to pay for it.

This part of the structure is not working.
It’s not just imperfect.
It’s shite.

This Is A Small State

And That’s Not The Problem

We don’t have too many games.

We don’t have too few games.

We have a small player pool.

In a place like Tasmania, you will play the same teams more often.

That’s just reality.

It always has been.

And it’s not the end of the world.

The problem is when that becomes the whole experience.

That’s What The Cups Were For

Cups didn’t replace the league.

They complemented it.

They added:

Different opposition
Different challenges
Different energy

They gave players something outside the weekly rhythm.

They connected the state.

And importantly, they still provide pathways.

Pathways to the Australia Cup.

That doesn’t disappear with a different structure.

If anything, it becomes clearer and more meaningful.

The Balance We’ve Lost

We’ve tried to solve everything through the league.

More structure.

More rounds.

More layers.

But Tasmanian football has always been a mix of:

Familiar opposition
And occasional difference

Right now, we’ve leaned too far one way.

And Then We Call Part Of It “Social”

A 19-year-old doesn’t want to say they’re playing social football.

They want to play.

We’ve labelled part of our own system as something outside it.

And then we wonder why players drift away.

Why Do We Have A State League?

It’s worth asking this.

Not emotionally.

Honestly.

Why do we have a State League in its current form?

Was it created as part of a long-term plan that fits Tasmania?

Or was it, at least in part, a reaction to what other codes were doing at the time?

Because AFL had a state league structure.

Now it doesn’t.

And we do.

So what are we holding onto?

Is it:

A pathway?
A standard?
A necessity?
Or a label?

Are we keeping a State League because it genuinely fits our player pool…

or because it feels like something we should have?

Let’s Be Properly Honest

We’ve built a system that is designed to work perfectly on paper.

Every layer has a purpose.

Every competition has a place.

The problem isn’t the design.

It’s that not enough clubs can realistically carry it…

and not enough players fit neatly inside it.

So What Does This Actually Point To?

Reading this back, I can see where I land.

It probably looks like a return to:

Strong North / North West and South competitions
Properly aligned Championship and reserves
And a much stronger, broader cup structure

More football.

Not less.

Lower cost.

Less burden on clubs.

But still with high standards.

Still with ambition.

Still with pathways.

But More Than Anything

It’s About Listening

Because this can’t be solved with another quick fix.

Not another tweak.

Not another layer.

And not through a consultant flown in who doesn’t understand how football actually works in Tasmania.

We don’t need that.

What we have already is:

Decades of experience
Hundreds of years of combined knowledge across clubs
People who live this every week

Get them in a room.

Ask the question properly.

Listen.

No More Knee Jerk Fixes

This needs a proper look.

A hard look.

At what is:

Sustainable
Affordable
Realistic

For the people actually running the game.

Because the members are the clubs.

And the clubs are the ones carrying it.

Two Lenses

Ken and I talk about this all the time.

He looks at it through a football lens.

Standard. Quality. Competition.

And I understand that.

But I look at it differently.

Through:

Sustainability
Longevity
Volunteer burnout

Because without that…

none of the rest exists.

Final Thought

We don’t need to look like something bigger.

We need to build something that works here.

For our players.

For our clubs.

For the people holding it together every week.

One Line To Leave It With

Ask us.

Listen to us.

And build it with us.

Victoria Morton