Clubs stuck in dark
THE first round of findings from the Tasmanian Football Futures Project revealed clubs fighting over players, paying too much for recruits and salary caps not being adequately policed, but nothing about the future of the State League.
The seven TSL clubs are all but begging to know what the future holds after their 10-year contracts expire in 2023.
But the Football Futures Project so far has not helped.
The main takeaway from the initial findings are what clubs already know – not enough players for the state’s
largest southern-based competitions – the TSL, SFL and Old Scholars – and not enough money.
The main issues governing players were:
• Salary caps across the leagues in the region don’t mirror the competition tiers.
• Concern that when salary caps are in place they are not being policed.
• Poaching of players between leagues as a result of high signing bonuses/ fees.
• Player points are not consistently managed and policed between leagues with similar issues.
AFL Tasmania boss Damian Gill praised the thousands of people who attended TFFP meetings or took part in the survey.
“It is great to have genuine buy-in for the project and to have so many Tasmanians invested in playing their part in setting up Tassie footy for success. I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to contribute,” Gill said.
“Football in Tasmania is generally in good shape, but we know it can be even stronger and the ambition of this project is to create a game-plan to get us there.
“We are looking at the entire local footy landscape to find the formula for overall success and drive growth of the game.”
Gill said it was an all-in approach to mapping the future.
“The intent of this project has always been to find the solutions together as a football community,” he said. “We really want players, coaches, umpires, volunteers and anyone with an interest in Tasmanian football to review the preliminary findings and ensure they see themselves reflected in it.
“The more input we get from right across Tasmanian football, the better we are placed to make recommendations.”
The project, started in May and with the support of external consultant Colgan Bauer, involves a range of stakeholders from across Tasmanian football.