Lack of younger talent a concern

A REVIEW of junior football has concluded that not enough young players are coming through the ranks to fill future senior teams.

Jackson Hills, head of the Tasmanian Football Council, said it was his mission to “flip the pyramid” over the next few years to get more players coming through the system.

The news came on the same day AFL Tasmania announced that Bupa was its new major sponsor and in the wake of SFL club Brighton’s struggle for players.

Hills said he was lending support to Brighton by putting out a call to arms to help Brighton and its new coach, Matthew Smith.

“Brighton has made a really strong appointment with Matt, he’s got a really strong record and I wish them all very well,” Hills said.

“They are in a strong position financially so their issue right now is player numbers.

“We have reached out to the club to provide any support we can in the short term and make sure they get enough numbers this season.

“But there is a longer-term issue here.

“I’m keen for the football community to know that our pyramid is the wrong way around.

“We have more senior men’s teams than youth boys’ teams in the state, and I’m not sure how widely known that is.

“Structurally, we need to fix that over the next five to seven years to make sure we’ve got enough boys coming through to fill these senior teams because right now we don’t.”

Hills said the No.1 question he was asked is, “What are you doing about it?”

“I’d point to the work we are doing at the base of the pathway,” he said.

“We are working really hard to change our Auskick program. It’s up 25 per cent on last year and a lot of that is in the female side of it, but there’s incremental growth in the boys there, too.

“We’ve just concluded our junior football review in conjunction with our junior associations, and that is going to produce some recommendations on our junior pathway around coaching, age groups, the number of teams in competitions, to support this into the future. All of those things will take time to wash through the system.

“The pressure we are feeling in senior footy right now has probably been coming for a while and we are focusing our efforts at the grass roots.”

Hills’ other goal is to bring all of the leagues under the TFC umbrella to produce a better result for Tasmanian football.