Dear Editor,

The Tracy Village Football Club would like to address the forthcoming re-structure of the NTFL competition for season 2022/23. Whilst change, and the time-to-time re-structure of any football league is inevitable for success, TVFC believes this re-structure, and the way it has been conducted is excessively detrimental to both the TVFC and potentially the lower grades of the NTFL competition.

The nature of the re-structure involves the following:

Senior men’s grades: Morphing of the previous Division 1 into Premier League reserves, the renaming of Division 2 to Division 1, and the addition of a fourth grade called Division 2.

Senior women’s grades: the renaming of Women’s Premier League reserves to Division 1 and the addition of a Division 2. The relegation of the TVFC WPL team, leaving an odd numbered competition and a bye round.

All grades: the re-grading of some teams and scheduling changes.

As with any change, there will be favourable and unfavourable consequences. The TVFC believes the major detrimental effects of this re-structure are being borne solely by our club, whilst other clubs are able to maintain the status quo. We are extremely disappointed we were not given the opportunity to be actively involved during the planning phase of this re-structure and it would appear a decision on the re-structure had been made with little or no consultation.

Towards the end of the 2021/22 season, the TVFC and the Tiwi Bombers had entered into talks, and indeed formed an in-principle agreement regarding forming an alliance to develop and grow a Tiwi WPL team. This alliance would have seen the female Tiwi players, volunteers and supporters incorporated into the TVFC WPL team in the short-term, with the goal of facilitating the growth, development and experience required to field their own WPL team in the medium-term.

Similarly, talks also covered the alignment of the Tiwi Premier League men’s team with TVFC Division 1 and 2 teams, effectively giving Tiwi a reserve grade, and TVFC players the opportunity to play Premier League.

These proposals were communicated to AFLNT prior to the season 2021/22 review being conducted. The TVFC is unable to ascertain if these proposals were considered as part of the season 2021/22 review as no records/minutes have been made available. After being notified of the decision to restructure the league, all proposals by the TVFC, including variations of those above, in the hope of lessening its significant impacts on the TVFC, were rejected.

The re-structure will have significant detrimental effects for the TVFC.

The relegation of our two senior men’s teams will inevitably lead to the attrition of not only players, but also volunteers, sponsors, juniors and supporters.

The scheduling of Men’s Division 1 and 2 games to predominantly Sundays will also exacerbate these losses.

These same significant detrimental effects are also relevant to our senior women’s teams, with the drop from WPL to Division 1 being particularly damaging.

The majority of our senior women’s players, volunteers and supporters have availability issues in attending Wednesday night games that will impact participation rates.

Our juniors will also feel the negative impacts of this re-structure. Anecdotal evidence indicates that junior players (and their parents) prefer to play for clubs with a clear progression path to the higher grades of the league. The relegation of TVFC’s senior men’s teams will cause greater attrition in the junior grades, similarly, our desire to field junior girls’ teams will now likely be impossible on a practical level.

Prior to the 2021/22 review being made available to clubs on June 9, TVFC was well into planning for the upcoming season. With only three and a half month’s notice until the competition begins, and the uncertainty of the exact effects of these changes, the TVFC is now far behind.

The added uncertainty of further detrimental arbitrary decisions from the AFLNT affecting the forthcoming season is also causing the TVFC committee some angst.

The TVFC is also concerned that the re-structure will have negative medium-to-long term effects on the lower grades of the NTFL competition.

In its re-structured guise, and with the concerns listed above, it is likely that some men’s and women’s Division 1 and 2 clubs will not be viable and will cease to exist. If this happens, the AFLNT will then need to re-structure the competition again by amalgamating grades, returning the competition to where it was prior to this re-structure, albeit without some clubs that are currently viable. This has the potential to lessen the participation rate and result in the league effectively shrinking.

TFVC was not adequately consulted prior to the re-structure being finalised, and it would appear the decision to implement the re-structure had been made without any inclusive or meaningful consultation.

The significant work done by the TVFC in exploring ways to positively grow the NTFL competition, particularly by assisting in the inclusion of a Tiwi WPL team, has not warranted consideration from the AFLNT.

Attempts to mitigate the harmful effects of the re-structure on the TVFC by engaging with the AFLNT in order to explore alternate ways forward have been arbitrarily rejected.

These changes have the very real possibility of relegating our proud club to history and thus negatively impacting the NTFL competition.

The Committee,
Tracy Village Football Club

If you want your letter to the editor published send it to ntindependent@protonmail.com. Please include your name, address and phone number for verification. We will only publish your name and suburb or town. We do reserve the right to edit the letter for length and clarity purposes. PRIVACY POLICY: You can find our privacy policy by clicking here.