Photo: Matt Bulkeley, Football Tasmania's CEO, at yesterday's media conference where the 2020 rosters were released [PlessPix]
Football
Tasmania CEO Matt Bulkeley yesterday officially released the 2020 rosters for
the NPL Tasmania, Women’s Super League, and Southern Championship competitions.
“These
senior rosters are the culmination of the very comprehensive competition review
process that we’ve undertaken his year and concluded a couple of months ago,” Bulkeley
said.
“We’ve
consulted widely through the process and done a lot of analysis and worked very
closely with our clubs and stakeholders in terms of where we’ve landed with
these competitions.
“I
suppose in terms of summarising where we’ve got to, central to the development
of these rosters has been the development of key rostering principles, which
includes trying to achieve consistency, or more consistency, for our clubs,
alignment, or what we’re calling big home days, where there are multiple games
happening on the one day at the one place, maximising the access to our facilities,
which are at a kind of premium, and also ensuring that we can allocate or
maximise the allocation of referees to our fixtures.
“We’ve
got a major focus on club match days, so, in the south, essentially, in many
ways, we’ll be moving to a model that has been in place in the North for some period
of time, where matches will flow from one to another.
“Our
NPL clubs will now be part of the Southern Championship and so will run a first
and reserve team effectively in that competition.
“What
we will have is Southern Championship, in most cases, leading in to NPL.
“We’re
also going back to more traditional time slots of having NPL on a Saturday,
primarily, with staggered kick-off times as much as we can to ensure that we’re
avoiding as much as we can simultaneous kick-offs.
“The
other exiting thing is that we’re moving to Super League Sundays, as we’re
calling it, so, essentially, almost all WSL will be on a Sunday, with the
exception in 2020 of Ulverstone, who will be playing still on a Saturday as part
of their kind of Northern match day.
“The
move is to have all WSL games played on Sundays in 2020, 2021 and beyond.
“We’re
also moving senior women’s football to Sundays as well. We’ll have girls’ youth football leading into
senior women’s football and then, obviously, the WSL, which mirrors what we’re
doing for the men.
“In
that respect, we’re confident that what we’ll achieve is a big match day for
our female players and, more broadly, more sustainable clubs with more games
going on, and economically it’s a better situation for our clubs.
“With
the merger of Clarence and Zebras, Clarence-Zebras will now be the eighth team
in the NPL, so an eight-team competition with no bye is what it’ll be.
“The
WSL will continue to be a six-team competition with University the sixth team
in that competition.”
Photo: Matt Bulkeley said the clubs had been consulted on the rosters [PlessPix]
Bulkeley
said there will be various summer cup competitions next season with the
opportunity for clubs to win some silverware.
There
will be one Friday night NPL fixture in Launceston in 2020, while South Hobart
will play several Sunday stand-alone NPL games at home at South Hobart Oval.
“There’s
not a lot of NPL games outside of Saturday and we consulted on that aspect with
the clubs and their preference was primarily to have Saturday fixtures,”
Bulkeley said.
“We’ve
staggered the fixtures so there is some spread in that respect, but the preference
was again to have that kind of big match day and not have too many stand-alone
fixtures.
“The
feedback was that we had too much of that in the past, with clubs having
different teams in different places at the same time.
“We’ve
listened and we’ve come out with rosters that we think reflect that feedback.”
Bulkeley
said there had been talk of making the NPL a summer competition but that was
not viable because Tasmania was aligned with the national NPL set-up.
He
also said Football Tasmania was still in favour of a Tasmanian A-League team
and that this was still a possibility in coming years as the A-League either
expanded or if an existing A-League club was to experience difficulties.
A
rectangular stadium to host football was still desirable, Bulkeley believes,
and the possible development of Wilkinson’s Point in Glenorchy could be an
ideal location, with football and rugby sharing it. Concerts could also be held there.
Photo: Matt Bulkeley said football was the biggest team sport in Tasmania [PlessPix]
7 comments:
One reason why I don't think we will get an A league team is due to the Airport.
Wellington Phoenix is one reason as I believe that the club flys directly to their destination without a stop over. We do not have Customs which means that Wellington would have to fly via Melbourne, extra time and costs. If the team made the AFC championship , clubs out of Asia don't have stop overs. This alone causes enough issues outside of Tassie.
11:27 am that must be one of the best post I have read in a long time. I for one did not take logistics of clubs from other countries into account and I doubt that Football Tasmania have either.
We are worried about our Asian Champions League fixturing already...cart get back behind horse!
Well Charles I would say it's part of the big picture if you want to have an a league team.
Logistics of any professional team is vitally important no matter what league. "Time is precious" as they say.
Sadly Tasmania will not get an A league team. The believers are fooling themselves and have no sense of reality. Facilities and cost of running a team are the major hurdles for which there is currently no answer. The population base of Tasmania then it being narrowed down to the area of where it will be played is also a factor. There are much more attractive markets on the mainland for new franchises and tv networks to consider.
Dear Anonymous...I assume that is a Greek philosophers name...just for my own amusement, tell me more about this clubs in Asian competitions not having stop overs theory of yours? Think carefully before responding...For those reading along this will be entertaining...
I can't wait either.
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