FOOTY FEARS

TSL coaches fearful for local game’s future

is on its sick bed and the demise of the TSL will send the game back a decade says those at the coalface.

Three TSL coaches have raised concerns over the plight of the game following North Hobart president Craig Martin raising doubts on the future of the code in Tasmania without urgent funding increases and a vision for the future.

The TSL has licence agreements with AFL Tasmania until 2023, but if the AFL pulls the pin on the competition, it must give 12 months notice to participating clubs meaning a decision could be made next season.

Jeromey Webberley (Clarence), Paul Kennedy (Glenorchy) and Daniel Willing (Lauderdale) all raised concerns over the decline participation and the on flow that would impact on senior football.

Webberley was clear in how desperate the situation was.

“The game is sick at the moment and we can talk about an AFL team and what the TSL looks like but if we don’t fix underneath, it doesn’t matter what’s on top,” he said.

“We could drop an AFL team here in five years, it is not going to fix participation because it will be gone.”

Head of AFL Tasmania Damian Gill said official figFOOTBALL ures show participation has actually grown the past five years with 2021 on track to meet or exceed pre-COVID numbers.

“We acknowledge there are challenges and concerns from parts of community football including but not limited to the distribution of players across clubs and competitions,” Gill said.

“It is important we look at the landscape holistically and consult deeply.

“The best structure for Tasmanian community football in the future is something we are looking closely at, with more to be communicated soon.”

Willing backed Martin’s call for an urgent lift in the TSL salary cap from $80,000 to retain the best players and attract former AFL and VFL players while Kennedy said the end of the women’s state league, the TSLW, was a warning sign for what could happen in the men’s league with players lost due to the switch back to regional football.

“If you don’t have a state competition … you have mediocrity,” Kennedy, pictured, said. “We’ve seen that in the women’s competition this year.

“If we went down that track on the TSL side of things we would just be putting Tasmanian footy back again for a decade.

“We’d be having the same thing that happened through the 2000s and then we would have to have the same process of lifting it up.”

He said the loss of youth age footballers (13 to 18) in Tasmania was above that compared to other states.

“Footy is not just about the ones who get drafted to the AFL,” he said.

“It is about all these kid who get involved and how it helps them become good young men and women.”