SCHOOL FOOTY BID
A REVIVAL of school-based football is one of the key objectives of a new Football Tasmania board established to push for a stand-alone Tasmania AFL team.
The grassroots approach aims to reverse a trend which has seen male participation rates decline in recent years. The strategy was announced as the board yesterday gained support from all Tasmanian political parties.
GETTING football back into schools will be one of the key objectives of the new Government-created Football Tasmania Board.
The Sunday Tasmanian revealed the Tasmanian Government has created a new board aimed at lifting the state’s declining male participation rates and starting the push for an AFL team.
The board will be an expanded and better resourced version of the current Tasmanian Football Council — made up of the SFL, NTFA and NWFL — with representatives from all leagues, including the TSL, AFL Tasmanian CEO Trisha Squires and the Government.
TFC and SFL president Madeleine Ogilvie said stopping the participation decline — at 22 per cent for 13 to 18year-old boys — was the No.1 goal.
She said football was removed from Tasmanian schools back in the 1980s.
“The concept behind this expanded organisation is to address first and foremost the need to rebuild grassroots football in Tasmania, to ad- dress issues such as football in schools, to drive funding into our competitions and our clubs and to give all of our kids the best shot at getting a game of football we can deliver,” Ms Ogilvie said. Ms Ogilvie said the board would do much of the ground work locally, before an expert project group would take the next step in pushing for Tasmania’s entry into the AFL. Opposition sports spokesman David O’Byrne said such a board was long overdue. He said there had been bipartisan support offered, but this had been rejected by the Government. “I know there is a lot of goodwill around the table from a number of the leagues and the people involved in Tassie footy. They want to work on a fix, but it will take political leadership and drive, which this Government has not shown the willingness to do to date,” Mr O’Byrne said. Tasmanian Greens Senator Nick McKim said: “This is a much needed step in the journey towards getting Tasmanian teams in the AFL and AFLW. “They cannot get to work soon enough.”