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Planning must be well underway for the 2023 Tasmanian football season.
Football Tasmania will benefit from some new developments, such as the revamping of KGV Park and the development of North Chigwell.
KGV Park will have a new artificial surface, new floodlights and new changerooms, making games feasible at any time.
But, I believe there also needs to be a revamping of competitions at the top levels.
People often mock the Summer Cup, the traditional tournament that opens the season. They say it is a waste of time and means nothing.
It used to mean something, and there was decent prizemoney for winning it.
The tournament needs to be revamped and made worthwhile for competing teams.
I advocate a return to a four-group system, with each group consisting of three teams.
Four of the five southern NPL Tasmania teams need to be seeded, with one in each group.
For example, South Hobart, Kingborough Lions United, Glenorchy Knights and Clarence Zebras should be seeded. Olympia Warriors, the remaining southern NPL team, would be drawn in any of the four groups.
The remaining three places in each group would be drawn from the seven Southern Championship teams, namely New Town White Eagles, Hobart United, Taroona, Hobart City Beachside, South East United, Metro and University.
Under this format, a sample tournament could look like this:
Group A: South Hobart, Olympia Warriors, Taroona.
Group B: Kingborough Lions United, New Town White Eagles, Metro.
Group C: Glenorchy Knights, Hobart City Beachside, Hobart United.
Group D: Clarence Zebras, South East United, University.
The winner of each group would qualify for the semi-finals and the winners of the two semi-finals would, naturally, play in the final.
Rather than being a meaningless pre-season competition, the Summer Cup would have some worth.
Each group would pit a strong team (the NPL team) against Southern Championship sides of varying strength.
In the group games, each team would thus face difficult opponents, easier opponents, or opponents of roughly the same strength as that team.
It would be a realistic preparation for the league season and have some merit.
Sponsorship and decent prize money would make the tournament a credible one and one well worth winning.
In the north of the State, the Steve Hudson Cup pre-season competition should be revived and involve all three NPL teams in that part of the State, as well as the Northern Championship sides.
Not so long ago, some southern teams even competed in the Steve Hudson Cup, which helped make it a prestigious tournament.
What about the league structure?
I shall deal mainly with the NPL Tasmania competition.
To make it fair, there should be 28 rounds and not 21, as has been the case.
That way, every team plays every other team home and away twice. This is fairer than the present set-up where a team might play another away twice and at home only once. To say that this can be evened up over two seasons misses the point completely.
Twenty-eight games for each team are not too many, and it is fairer than the present system.
The Lakoseljac Cup is well organised at present and could stay in the current format.
First-past-the-post should decide the NPL title, but an end-of-season top-four finals series may add a bit of interest, especially if a team runs away with the league title, as Devonport did this year.
The major honour should, however, always go to the team that finishes on top after the 28 rounds.
I believe the life-blood of football is promotion and relegation. This must become part of Tasmanian football.
There are various ways of introducing this.
There could be a two-match home-and-away showdown between the Northern and Southern champions, and there could also be a play-off with the winner of this against the bottom side in the NPL.
If no team wishes to go up, the last-placed NPL team might be safe.
The details can be worked out, but there should be some form of promotion and relegation.
The women’s competitions are another matter.
The people at Football Tasmania can turn their minds to that in the off-season as well.
These are just my personal opinions after reporting on the game for 43 years.
I feel the game needs a gee-up and the ideas I have expressed may be the tonic needed.
I hope this post leads to some fruitful discussions over the summer.
It’s easy for me as I don’t have to run a club nor implement the plans. I realise the hard work club officials and Football Tasmania officials are required to do.
All I ask is that people consider the ideas. Come up with others if you like, but let’s work together and make the 2023 season one of the best in a long time.
15 comments:
As usual Walter you nailed it perfectly. No more to say or add.
Walter wonderful ideas here which obviously comes from you many years of involvement in the game & knowledge. Some may say you are a walking encyclopaedia in regards to football in TAS. If only the Brat Pack sitting in their offices in Glenorchy would take some of your ideas and implement them along with TFC ideas we might have a more organised game here in TAS. Keep up the brilliant reporting next season. Well done once again.
Well said Walter.
I don't have much else to add, but think the competition would get a very much needed rejuvenation with some of the changes you propose.
Would these fall under David Smith at FT? David, if you are reading this, we would love your opinion. I think most would be incredibly supportive of the changes.
The summer cup in particular really needs some work.
Great ideas - I'd add one more - bring back Youth Cup competitions to reinvigorate the U13s-U16s.
I hope that members of the FT Board and the "President" read Walter's article. They have become so anonymous in recent times to most of the footballing public and it is no coincidence that this coincides with the game growing a tad stale.
That said there is a lot of potential - but I think it needs a fresh face at the top - the FT President's position ran out early this year and yet no word of a replacement. Time for new blood for sure.
Whose TFC ?
Response to 7.35am. Iwould say Tassie Football Central. Facebook blog. Fantastic updates and ideas. Also not afraid to be ho est & open.
Lol , why would FFT pay attention to a Facebook page? That's ridiculous.
Agree with a lot Walter but just extend the main season to each side playing each other an even number of times. To accommodate this reduce the summer cup to what it is, a warm up/practice session, or scrap it all together.
Oct 19 4.31. Your lol comment? Possibly because it has 6400 followers and more game updates than FFT provide. On and off season.
Thats still no reason to listen to a Facebook page. It's not credible media unlike Walter. Thanks for the updates though.
Time for the summer cup to be put on the shelf. Let clubs organise their own friendlies.
Start the season proper in February. Extend the state league to 12 teams. Clubs should play each other home and away. The Laka cup is another comp and provides a opportunity for clubs from a lower division to challenge the top tier teams.
Bit late on Walter's article re Summer Cup and some sort of end of season final. Must be careful as some are not familiar with the league winner being the Champion. Some years ago there was an end of season KO series with the State teams (5) having the top 3 SPL clubs added for a KO, something extra for the SPL clubs to aim for. it required just 3 weekends to reach the Final. It could use the name of a long ago trophy such as the Falkinder Cup, coupled with a sponsorship name??? Keith Roberts.
You once again summed up the situation very well Walter. Lets hope FT are reading your blog. If not they should. I do also agree with one other poster that the junior U13-U16 comp needs to be re-introduced. Keep on blogging & we'll keep reading.
A late response to this post and all though I agree with most of your points Walter, I don't quite agree with your relegation/promotion idea.
Not because I don't like it, but because the way FT control the league.
They have their own rules and ideas on what clubs should be allowed into the NPL based on their credentials and policies so any other teams being promoted need to meet these, which is an absolute joke.
Clubs have been running themselves and continuing to survive without the rules from FT so why don't they relax their rules and exclusivity to allow other teams to play in the NPL.
So your idea of a promotional game would not work due to the way FT monopolise the NPL.
Most of the teams that are playing in the lower leagues would not want to play in the NPL so the game would be seen as a dead rubber.
Just my thoughts.
The changes of licenses to take effect for 2023 announced yesterday were (from my perspective) unexpected.
A 4/4 North/South split is quite staggering and an intention to expand to 10 teams would likely see any extras from the South if they can meet license criteria.
Assuming there aren’t any changes resulting from an Olympia appeal it seems it is time for those in the Southern Championship to start aiming high.
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