Statewide Australian rules football competition has been played in Tasmania, Australia under the umbrella of the Tasmanian Football League from 1986–1998, Football Tasmania from 1999–2000 until the competition was disbanded in December 2000 and AFL Tasmania from 2009 when a new ten-club competition, this time known as the Tasmanian State League, was formed.

Background of statewide football

Discussions had begun as far back as 1972 between leading coaches, players and officials in Tasmanian football in restructuring the Tasmanian Football League into a statewide competition in an effort to improve playing strength and improve the ability to lure drawcard players to the state after Tasmania's dismal displays at the 1969 and 1972 Australian Football Carnivals had caused the state's football reputation enormous harm.

With crowds continuing to fall since 1968 across the three major regional leagues – TANFL, NTFA and NWFU – and Tasmania's continually disappointing performances at representative level, a prototype statewide competition was organised by the TANFL in 1980.

The Winfield Statewide Cup involved all twenty-one clubs from the three major leagues across Tasmania and was sponsored by tobacco giant Winfield to the tune of $37,500. The tournament ran in a five-round roster with finals between 29 March and 17 May 1980. It was won by the Hobart Football Club, wooden spooners of the previous two seasons in the TANFL and, despite some good football displayed, the football public failed to warm to the concept. The series ran at a financial loss as attendances were disappointing with 75,516 people attending the 58 matches.

The TANFL expressed plans to hold another Winfield Statewide Cup competition in 1981 with prizemoney extended to $50,000 with a view to holding a full TFL Statewide League roster comprising six TANFL clubs and six clubs from the North and North West from the start of the 1982 season.

However, at a meeting of the three main bodies in Launceston on 21 August 1980, the NTFA and NWFU voted against the proposal believing it not to be in the best interests of football in the north of the state.

As a result, the northern and coastal clubs banded together in protest and formed the Greater Northern Football League (GNFL) in 1981 in order to disassociate themselves with the TANFL.

After its formation, GNFL president Brendon Lyons launched a scathing attack on TANFL president John Bennett, accusing him of hatching plans aimed at denigrating Northern football by attempting to take six clubs to the statewide competition and seeking to demote the remaining uninvited clubs to junior status.

The TANFL, as the sport's governing body in Tasmania responded by introducing new qualification entries for players named for state duties, ruling that all players must play in the TANFL to be included in the squad, effectively banning all players from northern leagues from participating in the Tasmanian representative teams. The TANFL had previously stripped both the NTFA and NWFU of its senior status briefly in 1957 after both leagues had banded together to block voting for TANFL initiatives to improve the sport within the State

With Tasmania continuing to underperform at representative level and crowds continuing to fall across the state and a dearth of star players, the TANFL launched an investigation into the decaying state of Tasmanian football.

Evers Report

By 1985 there were twenty-three senior clubs competing across the three major leagues. Between them they attracted around 300,000 spectators to all matches across the season – the TANFL attracted almost this entire figure alone twenty years earlier in 1965 (292,932) but by 1985 the TANFL attendance figure for that season had fallen to 132,461 for all matches.

The income derived from gate revenue was estimated to total approximately $600,000 and this sum was also supplemented by approximately $100,000 provided by four major sponsors and a lesser figure from the Tasmanian state government.

At this time, salaries paid to players and coaches ranged from $10,000 to as high as $100,000 per year.

The TANFL were highly concerned that this state of affairs was totally unsustainable and commissioned a consultant, Nick Evers, to make recommendations for the future of the sport.

Evers had found that a strong decline in attendances in the south and the north (where crowds had fallen to critical levels) was continuing unchecked, and only the NWFU had experienced a small gain in attendances, yet more than half the crowds attending matches in the NWFU were composed of pensioners, children and those who snuck into grounds without paying.

Some of Evers findings included: Ground facilities that were considered primitive twenty years previous Most well-appointed ground in the state was North Hobart Oval, but its facilities were regarded as "positively Neanderthal" Grossly uneven competitions Entirely unsuitable attention to junior football by clubs Inadequate marketing of the sport Amateurish club administration, mostly central administration dominated by club leaders lacking time or skill and being ill-equipped to discharge their mandates Numerous examples of gross financial irresponsibility Outdated zoning arrangements

In his strongly worded report, Evers concluded that "unless change took place, Tasmanian football was condemned to another generation of mediocrity".

The change recommended was to set up a statewide competition, which had been debated as far back as 1972.

The catalyst for the TANFL to commission Evers to report on the dismal state of the sport in Tasmania came when Tasmania suffered a crushing 96-point defeat to Queensland at Windsor Park in Brisbane on 30 June 1985.

The argument in favour of implementing a statewide competition was that it would raise the profile, and consequently the standard, of football within Tasmania.

Evers recommended a league comprising five southern clubs and five from the north and north-west, however the application of this would have necessitated the omission of one TANFL club (widely tipped to be either New Norfolk or Hobart) or a merger.

The clubs resisted this move but embraced the concept of a statewide competition.

Birth of statewide football

In early 1986 the TANFL went into liquidation and a newly constituted Tasmanian Football League replaced it as the sport's governing body.

The TFL initiated the new competition as the TFL Statewide League with all six former TANFL clubs involved, North Launceston and East Launceston also joined the competition from the NTFA in early 1986.

On 26 May 1986, East Launceston merged with fellow NTFA rival City-South to form the South Launceston Football Club.

However, the new-look competition did not garner the support of the football public at either end of the state at first, with 145,918 spectators attending the 78 matches and 25 matches recording attendances of under 1,000 spectators.

The lowest attendance recorded was 470 at KGV Football Park when New Norfolk hosted South Launceston on 28 June.

In Launceston, the footballing public was still suspicious of the concept – only 15,258 spectators attended the 18 roster matches at an average of 848 spectators per match.

In 1987 the Devonport Football Club joined the competition under a new Blues emblem, along with Burnie Hawks (formerly the Cooee Bulldogs), which created a ten-club competition with all three regions now represented. All clubs were required to field teams in seniors, reserves and under-19s competition from that season.

At first the competition appeared well balanced with three different clubs – Glenorchy, North Hobart and Devonport – winning the league's first three premierships and, importantly, the strong level of competition produced a very high standard of football.

Of even greater importance, the league began to be well supported by players, clubs, sponsors, the general public and the media – which had for many years been unenthusiastic about Tasmanian football – was now giving the TFL Statewide League its full support.

Problems were looming on the horizon, however. In 1986 the VFL/AFL had abandoned its former restrictions upon the number of players each club could draft from outside Victoria and introduced a National Draft.

This was to allow Victorian talent scouts to scour the country for up-and-coming players. Tasmania – a traditional hunting ground for Victorian recruiters – was close by and was seen as a cheap option.

In 1986, seventeen of the sixty-five players drafted in the first National Draft were from Tasmania. By 1990, forty-four of Tasmania's most promising young footballers had been recruited.

The strong contribution that these players may well have made to Tasmanian football was in evidence on 24 June 1990 when Tasmania defeated Victoria by 33-points at North Hobart Oval. It appeared that Tasmanian football was being rapidly stripped of its talent.

Beginning of the decline

This rapid stripping of top talent within the state would cause the second and most dangerous problem for the competition – in an effort to keep promising young players within Tasmania, the clubs were now overspending on player wages. The salary cap for TFL clubs at this time for players and coaches was $200,000 per year and most clubs achieved this figure, but crowd numbers, club memberships and sponsor dollars began to fall due to the crippling effects of the recession.

The TFL administration had also been lax in their financial control of the competition and by 1992 it was servicing a debt of $300,000 and growing as crowd numbers continued to plummet.

Also, in 1992 a number of clubs – North Hobart, Sandy Bay, Clarence and Burnie Hawks – were all in deep financial trouble. In Sandy Bay's case, the Seagulls required an immediate mid-season injection of $70,000 in order to complete the season, while Burnie Hawks had entered into merger discussions with city rival, Burnie Tigers.

An eleventh club, Launceston Football Club were included in the competition in 1994 in an effort to regenerate interest in the North, but the move backfired on the TFL as the club were proven to be completely out of their depth at TFL level both on and off the ground.

The higher standard of football was documented with victories by Tasmania over South Australia, Western Australia and the VFL (formerly the VFA) during the 1990s, but by 1997 the league appeared to be in deep trouble.

The level of interest in the TFL had continued to drop as crowds continued to stay away in droves as the competition had evolved into a two-horse race. The preceding five premierships had been won by just two clubs – Clarence and North Launceston.

Faced with enormous debts and dismal attendances, four clubs were to quit the TFL at the end of the 1997 season. Hobart Football Club (1997 average home attendance of 658), which was in debt almost $460,000, voted to join the Southern Football League, Launceston (1997 average home attendance of 702) and South Launceston (1997 average home attendance of 688) rejoined the NTFL, while Sandy Bay (1997 average home attendance of 844), by then insolvent, were wound up by administrators and closed down.

In 1998 a newly formed club – Southern Districts Cats – were formed as a representative club from the Kingborough region of southern Tasmania with key people from Kingston, Channel and Sandy Bay involved in its setup. The club was to pick up a large number of players from the recently defunct Sandy Bay Football Club, including Troy Clarke, the Seagulls final coach, who took on the senior coaching role with the new club.

Clarence and North Launceston (now renamed the Northern Bombers) continued to dominate the competition. The Bombers went through the 1998 season undefeated and won the premiership with a convincing victory over Clarence in the Grand Final.

Biggs Report