TSL faces 14-round season

THE TSL season could be reduced from 21 rounds to 14 in a coronavirus-shortened 2020 season, while the clubs are trying to decide if their players can train as one main group or need to be segregated into smaller units.

Scheduled to start in 2½ weeks, the AFL has decided the earliest State Leagues can now kick off is Sunday, May 31, which would have been the start of the TSL’s split Round 10 — a contest between enemies Glenorchy and Lauderdale at KGV on the Queen’s Birthday long weekend.

An early June start would produce a home-and-away series in which all clubs play each other twice leading into the TSL’s new top four, threeweek finals series.

North Hobart president Craig Martin was frustrated at the late start.

“We’ve got some very disappointed coaches and players who geared themselves up for the start of the season and it’s not going to start,” Martin said.

“We are disappointed the season isn’t going to start on time but we absolutely understand that the decision had to be made and it’s the right decision. Our coaches are going to rejig the program around a May 31 start or thereabouts.

“The players will have an input into that and we need to plan around it.”

Martin said the current coronavirus crisis could hit the clubs financially.

“I suspect there will be an impact but it depends on the business models of each of the clubs,” he said.

“If you haven’t got games happening, you haven’t got people coming through the gates, and you don’t have anyone eating and drinking. That hurts your revenue stream and that will impact clubs.

“We are not in the worst position because we don’t have huge administrative costs, and like all clubs, or as far as I know, we pay players on the number of games they play so if they are not playing we don’t incur any costs.

“I’m sure all clubs will sit down with their financial directors and work out a budget to get us through this to make sure clubs come out the other side on a sustainable footing.”