Tuesday, April 2, 2024

Future of the Tasmanian game looking anything but rosy

Photo:  Olympia Warriors received an absolute hiding on Monday at the hands of a relatively new club in South East United. [PlessPix] 

Olympia Warriors’ 10-0 defeat to South East United in the Lakoseljac Cup on Easter Monday ranks as Olympia’s second worst defeat in the club’s history.

Their worst defeat occurred in 2009 in the old Southern Premier League competition.

Photo:  Olympia's James Ackerley (right) under pressure. [PlessPix] 

There was no State League at the time so that was the highest level of the game in Tasmania, together with the Northern Premier League.

Olympia lost 11-0 to Hobart Zebras.

It’s obvious that they must right the ship to avoid further embarrassment, so coach Alex Holmes has a lot of work on his plate.

Photo:  South East United, led by captain and former Olympia player, Nick Zammit, troop onto the pitch on Monday. [PlessPix] 

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Hobart United’s 4-1 loss to Riverside Olympic in the Lakoseljac Cup on Saturday in Launceston ended a run of good cup results against Launceston outfits for the Hobart side.

In this competition in last season, Hobart United beat NPL side Riverside Olympic 1-0.

In 2022, Hobart United beat NPL club Launceston City 1-0.

The tide seems to have turned so Hobart United must try and arrest this decline.

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The number of forfeits in cup matches this year is a cause for concern.

It must be so disappointing for players to learn that their match will not go ahead because the other side has forfeited.

It doesn’t say much for the standing of the competitions let alone the reputation of the sport in Tasmania.

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South Hobart should learn their fate later this month in terms of their application to join the National Second Division competition.

Prior to the recent election, the club urged the major parties to commit $10.5m to the cause over the next five years, with $2.5m of that this year.

None of the major parties came to the party, however, leaving South Hobart wondering how they can meet the required financial commitments of membership of the National Second Division.

I have doubts as to whether the National Second Division will go ahead.

The A-League itself is reported to be having severe financial issues and the TV broadcast deal collapsed last week and a replacement luckily found quickly.

Football Tasmania’s new CEO refused to back the South Hobart bid, saying that a Tasmanian team in the A-League was a priority.

Football Tasmania is also aiming to raise the number of State League teams to 10 and the number of Women’s Super Leage teams to 10.

Well, good luck with that.  They are noble aims, but are they realistic.

The Women’s Super League lost a team before the season even started to make it a 7-team competition, and one of those teams, Taroona, is struggling big time.

They lost their State-wide Cup match 13-0 on the weekend.

So, with forfeits and heavy defeats on the Easter long weekend, one has to ask whether football in Tasmania is in a healthy condition?

 

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

This article is spot on. The game in the state has not been this bad for a very long time

The standard of players has declined so much in recent years its hard to describe

The whole state needs a quick fix and fast

Anonymous said...

Not according to Rhodsey, he reckons it is going great guns.
Even said women's game was in good shape less women playing than ever going to AFLW.
The administration of the game is pathetic no idea.
Talent Coming through very poor ,but some will look at it with rose-coloured glasses

Anonymous said...

A- League Tasmania team has probably missed the boat now, what could of been 2-5 years ago

Anonymous said...

I’m not so sure about the comment on the Hobart United decline in the Laka Cup, getting multiple wins over NPL opposition is a fair achievement for a championship club. Not to mention riverside being a much better side than they have been in recent seasons. I believe it’s far off disappointing for Hobart United

Anonymous said...

Didn’t they forfeit a youth match?

Anonymous said...

Yeah they did, I was just speaking about the senior team though, I’m surprised they had a team in the youth cup, do they have a team in the regular season of that age group?

Anonymous said...

One from left field...too many clubs. Have a look at hockey, 6 clubs with 5 or six divisions underpinning the top div. Players can move up as they get better, fight for a spot. The best v the best from each club in top flight produces quality. over the last 20-30 years Tas players have been regular Aust reps. egos would have to be put away for this to ever happen.

Anonymous said...

Where does hockey rank in terms of world sport?

Anonymous said...

Very well administered sport ,producing Olympians and has a great base.
Where as Football is run by Presidents have no idea on how to run a sport ,most are not businessmen or make a living of their soccer schools.
Hence the sport has arrived at this ,leaving it in a very poor condition

Anonymous said...

The NPL really is declining rapidly. The novelty is wearing off. Those in their 20s or early 30s who work full time aren’t keen to give whole days away on weekends. No idea how Devonport players do it as the closest home game is an hour away and every second one away from home is over 3 hours. The state will not get an A League team and really, do we want one? That league is not going well itself. AFL and Basketball will take over in the juniors now so watch the space.

Anonymous said...

You can't take anything he says seriously.

Anonymous said...

Your spot on. Tasmanians were crying out for a national team to support. Football was in the box seat a few years back with the A league bid but missed out. I'm not into basketball but they are champions and have the state behind then now. AFL , well 170,000 plus members and rising. Where are we? Lucky to get 150 to a game, hardly any media coverage ( thank God for you Walter) a couple of clubs spending a fortune to win bugger all prize money. The game in Tasmania now is poorly run by the governing body. If football is to survive it needs an overhaul.

Its time to reduce the number of clubs to 6 in the south. Create 6 zones, North,West city, south city, South , East and South East . Have 1 club in each and thats it. If you want to play you play for one of them. No more Taroonas, Rovers, Dosa etc. I know clubs have history and they don't want to lose that but if we don't do something football will be history.

Anonymous said...

Produced more Olympians than Tasmania, it is more about how bad the game is going in Tasmania.
Bad administration at all levels of the game here.

Anonymous said...

Riverside are still pathetic.fine belong in NPL. Smashed twice from 2 games and conceded 10 goals already. Another season propping everyone else up.

Anonymous said...

Tasmanian NPL is an absolute joke at the moment .I am not a fan of Olympia , however the decision to exclude them from the NPL 2 years ago was the worst decision anyone could have made in respect to the quality/history of the NPL league. They were obviously in the gun for reason/s only known to FT.The other team on the eastern shore which benefited from this decision in theory , has self imploded without any assistance from anyone.
Surely FT could have discussed the issues it had with Olympia and/or its facilities and worked with them to work on the areas that required improving.
Has including the third Launceston team benefited anyone at all ? I doubt it very much and the floggings they cop every week surely does nothing for the club.
It appeared to be a decision to appease FA regardless of the effect on the remainder of the league down here and the standard of the competition going forward.
Olympia may never recover from this situation and that is a sad situation for the game in this State.
Having said that , this is just the tip of the iceberg in respect to future of the game down here. Some clubs are really good at promoting themselves and/or situations that may benefit their club more than others, but that is life and there are on or two clubs that are miles ahead of others in being successful at this. The other clubs need to get their heads out of the sand and stop doing the same old same old, which has not worked for decades and think differently and do things differently.

Anonymous said...

Well said 10.07. Spot on.
Yes FT have so much to answer for. Their decision to remove Olympia and add a third Lonny team show just how much they are out of touch. How many of them have even played the game at any level. Let alone a decent level.

Anonymous said...

Anon 3.48pm.
Surely someone must be responsible for ridiculous decisions made.
In any other organisation or business , if stupid/incorrect decisions are made and the organisation suffers, someone pays.
Then again at the time some of these decisions were being made it was a case of the tail wagging the dog.The leaders , ( we will call them that for now )had no idea of the standard of the men's game nor women's game, in particular.They listened to one individual who had them wrapped around his little finger. He had them spellbound at times and as they were unaware of the real situation , that was all they knew . Pathetic !!!

Anonymous said...

Olympia were their own worst enemy. I think they are the only ones upset about it, nobody else cares.

Anonymous said...

So in the East that would be the poorly ran Clarence, join together two teams,few years on the club is smaller than either club before they merged.
No women's teams,less youth teams .
So you couldn't let them control the eastern shore.

Anonymous said...

Can someone enlighten us on who this 1 person is???

Anonymous said...

I’m still salty they ruined Hobart Zebras/Juventus - absolute clown show!!! No history anymore!

Anonymous said...

Anon 5.31
First of all of course Olympia are going to be upset about it that would be expected.
Second of all a lot of people care about it, if you read comments here or when the event took place people not only from Olympia but the community were affected by it. It’s not just Olympia that suffers from the decision it’s also the npl comp etc. Olympia weren’t as bad as everyone made them out to be in their last season, specially not bad enough to be removed from the comp from what I saw. We now have an even less competitive comp because ft thought it was a great idea to have 3 launie teams. Ridiculous.

Anonymous said...

Old news, move on.