We do not play enough football

And the minutes tell the real story

Football Tasmania has released the fixtures for the 2026 National Premier Leagues Tasmania and the Women’s Super League along with the NPL Under 21s.

The detail that matters most is simple.

The men’s top competition will play eighteen rounds.

That single number explains far more about player development in Tasmania than any pathway document or strategic plan.

We do not play enough football.

And when you stop counting games and start counting minutes, the consequences become unavoidable.

The 2026 NPL season, as confirmed

The men’s National Premier League, Tasmania’s highest level of senior football, will feature ten teams in 2026.

The season begins on 6 March and runs for eighteen rounds, followed by a final’s series for the top five placed teams. The bottom two teams are relegated, with only eight clubs contesting the 2027 season.

Football Tasmania’s CEO has said that every match matters, with ten teams competing for eight places the following year.

That is true.

It is also precisely why this structure creates pressure rather than development.

Almost the same number of games as Under 9s

In the Central Region Junior Football Association, under 9s typically play a regular season that is not far short of the 2026 NPL calendar.

When participation in tournaments such as the Devonport Cup, Hobart Cup, and Launceston Cup is included, many Under 9 players add at least a dozen additional matches across the year. This means a potential 28 plus games per season for an 8 year old.

Under 9s play for fun, learning, and enjoyment.

NPL players are playing for performance, retention, results and often their next opportunity in the game.

The uncomfortable reality is that junior players can end up with more competitive match exposure across a year than players competing in the highest level of men’s football in the state.

This is not a criticism of junior football.

It is a question of proportionality.

Games are limited. Minutes are scarcer.

An NPL match gives a coach eleven players on the pitch for ninety minutes.

That is nine hundred and ninety player minutes per match.

Across an eighteen-round season, the total competitive minutes available are seventeen thousand eight hundred and twenty.

A player who plays every minute of the home and away season finishes with one thousand six hundred and twenty league minutes.

That is the ceiling.

There is no additional supply.

Spread across a real senior squad

Most NPL squads carry between eighteen and twenty-two players.

If a squad carries eighteen players and minutes were shared evenly, each player would finish the season with nine hundred and ninety minutes.

That is eleven full matches.

At twenty players, the average drops below nine hundred minutes.
At twenty two, it drops closer to eight hundred.

Minutes, however, are never shared evenly.

What actually happens inside squads

In practice, eleven to thirteen players carry the majority of minutes.

Five to seven players rotate irregularly.

Two to four players finish the season chronically underfed.

It is entirely normal for capable senior players to complete an NPL season with three hundred to six hundred total minutes.

Some start only once or twice.
Some are used late off the bench.
Some go weeks without meaningful football.

This is not about attitude or commitment.

It is arithmetic.

There are simply not enough minutes to go around.

What this means for clubs

This is where the issue becomes operational rather than theoretical.

Clubs recognised quickly that an eighteen round season cannot sustain a senior squad on its own.

Without a Championship or senior reserves team, fundamental problems emerge.

Where do non starting NPL players get a full ninety minutes.
Where do returning injured players rebuild match fitness.
Where do younger players learn to manage senior pressure.
Where do players stay engaged when results tighten and rotation shrinks.

Without a Championship side, the answer is blunt.

They do not play.

Championship teams did not emerge as optional extras. They became structural necessities.

They function as a minutes bank, a retention tool and a pressure release valve.

Even then, constraints remain.

Under current team stacking rules, any player named in the NPL starting eleven is ineligible to play in another match that weekend. Bench players may be permitted to play in Championship or Under 21s matches, depending on eligibility and scheduling.

If you start on Saturday, your weekend is finished.
If you are on the bench, you may go searching for minutes.

This is not a development model.

It is a workaround forced by the calendar.

Why the Under 21s do not solve the problem

The NPL Under 21s serve an important purpose.

They provide matches and responsibility for younger players.

They do not solve the shortage of senior minutes.

Under 21s football is not senior football.

The physical demands are different.
The tactical tempo is different.
The psychological pressure is different.
The consequences are different.

For a twenty two- to twenty-six-year-old NPL player, being redirected to Under 21s for game time is not development.

It is a holding pattern.

A note on the Women’s Super League

This is not a men only issue.

The Women’s Super League faces its own problems around game volume and continuity.

Byes, cup rounds and interrupted calendars have led to periods where teams have gone three weeks without a competitive match.

That is not a criticism of the women’s game.

It is recognition of the reality players and coaches are working within.

Engagement does not survive long gaps.
Rhythm disappears.
Training begins to feel disconnected from purpose.

The women’s calendar deserves its own proper examination and I will return to it separately.

For now, it is enough to acknowledge that insufficient and inconsistent game time affects more than one competition.

A deeper resistance sits underneath all of this

Beneath the calendar problem sits a cultural one.

Tasmania has long organised sport around traditional winter and summer seasons.

Football has been slotted into winter by habit as much as by design.

That no longer reflects reality.

Many clubs now operate almost year-round through academies, development programs, tournaments and representative commitments.

Players are training beyond winter.
Clubs are stretching across seasons.
Families are already adapting.

The competition calendar has not kept pace.

There remains a reluctance to challenge long standing structures, even as the game itself evolves.

That resistance to change shapes how little football is ultimately played.

What we still fail to measure

We are good at counting teams, programs and pathways.

We are far less willing to count minutes.

How many players finish a season under nine hundred minutes.
How many go weeks without meaningful football.
How many capable players drift away simply because they want to play.

Game time is development.

Minutes are development.

Until minutes are treated as a central measure of success, coaches and clubs will continue to be asked to do the impossible.

Develop players.
Win matches.
Avoid relegation.
Hold squads together.

All in eighteen rounds.