David Harding
Cain LynchTSL – Baffling decisios, finals fiascos, was it worth it? That was the season that was 2009.
January 29th 2010 05:16
2009 saw the Statewide League come back to life, and it came back to life with many good games televised, the game everyone wanted to see the Season opener between the Southern Premiers and the Northern premiers did not disappoint. Unless you were a Glenorchy supporter and then we you very disappointed with the end result, but the game was just the game that the Statewide League needed.
Glenorchy did take their time to get started, and came close to winning the game with a few senior players missing I think they did well. But clearly the Blues were the better side, they were under pressure late and they survived the storm that was the Magpies run home in that game. Before the season started there was a baffling decision made, to leave New Norfolk out in favour of Lauderdale. Kingborough were left out because of the standard of their ground, but the Bombers were permitted access.
It makes you wonder, the Eagles were a side that have missed one finals series in a long period of time, and then got kicked out of the league seems to be a poor choice. Boyer needs to be modifid, certainly but so does Lauderdale. The decision was also interesting as Lauderdale have only played one finals series since entering the league, but have managed to have some decent crowds, but what makes it more interesting to say the least is TV games are uprooted from Lauderdale and played at Bellerive.
Thus questioning the suitability of them in the league has to come into play, as that was a reason that Kingborough found themselves out in the cold. I have found that the TSL finals series was flawed, and a major fiasco ensued. North Hobart became unsuitable for finals football, and the game was moved from North Hobart to Bellerive, normally, there would be no major issues there but the team playing in there was given yet another home ground, but neither Glenorchy, or Burnie who finished higher were granted a home final.
We'll back up a moment, Glenorchy finished top, Burnie second, Clarence third, the teams were told that finishing top would not give you a home final the first week of the finals. If a southern team (which was the case.) finished top they were playing at Bellerive, if a Northern side finished top they'd have played at Aurora, the same with the Grand final. Finishing top should have granted the top team the home final, as it was Clarence had 3 home finals, one of which was not by design, but it's still happened.
Some will say, would it have changed the results? No, it wouldn't have Clarence would have beaten Devonport at any venue because Clarence are a better side then the Magpies. The Grand final too would have remained the same if Glenorchy lost their cool as much as they did and did undisiciplined acts. The fact of the matter is, Glenorchy should have faced Burnie at KGV regardless of any result that has been entered into the books. Top team, home final, also I feel maybe KGV would have been a better venue for the Clarence/Devonport game given that it's a venue that neither team got an advantage so it would have made for a good ground for them to play at.
The pluses this season have been some very good crowds, a lot of good games, and this season saw more names taken in the national draft. I think that the statewide league was what assisted Jeromey Webberly's draft prospect, being the RACT Player of the Year, a top 10 in the Tassie Medal, and getting coverage on the regional wrap on ABC every week has added a few more names out there. Next season becomes the second season of the TSL, I would hope to see the league grow more, maybe get some former Tassie players that have moved interstate come home. Already it appears Nathan Street has come back to Tasmania after a season away, he joins North Hobart as an assist coach. Glenorchy would have hoped he would have joined there and not gone to a rival.
There are talks that Ian Callinan is going to come back, as well once his contract ends with the team he is at now, there are a lot of positives to take out of the league this season, and a few negatives, but the league is going to have a few negatives as would any new league trying to get established, it's now time to start to find a way to improve, the standards, the crowds, the coverage, and then once all this has been done, the league can slowly grow again. Tasmanian Football needs this league to survive, the 1990s saw the standards start to slowly slip the 2000s the standard dropped even further. 2010 marks a new decade of Tasmanian Football, only now can we fix the problems associated with the league.
Maybe the league can also entice a few delisted AFL stars down, we have seen a lot of former AFL players come and go from the league over the decades it was a league where a lot of people wanted to come and play, now we can bring back our Tassie boys who have become men and are coming to an end of the road of their career they can add mentoring to their CV and maybe start a new career.
It's for the best for this league.
Glenorchy did take their time to get started, and came close to winning the game with a few senior players missing I think they did well. But clearly the Blues were the better side, they were under pressure late and they survived the storm that was the Magpies run home in that game. Before the season started there was a baffling decision made, to leave New Norfolk out in favour of Lauderdale. Kingborough were left out because of the standard of their ground, but the Bombers were permitted access.
It makes you wonder, the Eagles were a side that have missed one finals series in a long period of time, and then got kicked out of the league seems to be a poor choice. Boyer needs to be modifid, certainly but so does Lauderdale. The decision was also interesting as Lauderdale have only played one finals series since entering the league, but have managed to have some decent crowds, but what makes it more interesting to say the least is TV games are uprooted from Lauderdale and played at Bellerive.
Thus questioning the suitability of them in the league has to come into play, as that was a reason that Kingborough found themselves out in the cold. I have found that the TSL finals series was flawed, and a major fiasco ensued. North Hobart became unsuitable for finals football, and the game was moved from North Hobart to Bellerive, normally, there would be no major issues there but the team playing in there was given yet another home ground, but neither Glenorchy, or Burnie who finished higher were granted a home final.
We'll back up a moment, Glenorchy finished top, Burnie second, Clarence third, the teams were told that finishing top would not give you a home final the first week of the finals. If a southern team (which was the case.) finished top they were playing at Bellerive, if a Northern side finished top they'd have played at Aurora, the same with the Grand final. Finishing top should have granted the top team the home final, as it was Clarence had 3 home finals, one of which was not by design, but it's still happened.
Some will say, would it have changed the results? No, it wouldn't have Clarence would have beaten Devonport at any venue because Clarence are a better side then the Magpies. The Grand final too would have remained the same if Glenorchy lost their cool as much as they did and did undisiciplined acts. The fact of the matter is, Glenorchy should have faced Burnie at KGV regardless of any result that has been entered into the books. Top team, home final, also I feel maybe KGV would have been a better venue for the Clarence/Devonport game given that it's a venue that neither team got an advantage so it would have made for a good ground for them to play at.
The pluses this season have been some very good crowds, a lot of good games, and this season saw more names taken in the national draft. I think that the statewide league was what assisted Jeromey Webberly's draft prospect, being the RACT Player of the Year, a top 10 in the Tassie Medal, and getting coverage on the regional wrap on ABC every week has added a few more names out there. Next season becomes the second season of the TSL, I would hope to see the league grow more, maybe get some former Tassie players that have moved interstate come home. Already it appears Nathan Street has come back to Tasmania after a season away, he joins North Hobart as an assist coach. Glenorchy would have hoped he would have joined there and not gone to a rival.
There are talks that Ian Callinan is going to come back, as well once his contract ends with the team he is at now, there are a lot of positives to take out of the league this season, and a few negatives, but the league is going to have a few negatives as would any new league trying to get established, it's now time to start to find a way to improve, the standards, the crowds, the coverage, and then once all this has been done, the league can slowly grow again. Tasmanian Football needs this league to survive, the 1990s saw the standards start to slowly slip the 2000s the standard dropped even further. 2010 marks a new decade of Tasmanian Football, only now can we fix the problems associated with the league.
Maybe the league can also entice a few delisted AFL stars down, we have seen a lot of former AFL players come and go from the league over the decades it was a league where a lot of people wanted to come and play, now we can bring back our Tassie boys who have become men and are coming to an end of the road of their career they can add mentoring to their CV and maybe start a new career.
It's for the best for this league.
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