The Disappearing Club - Brian Roberts

Association Football Clubs have been appearing; disappearing; merging and being absorbed by big brother since the sport first came to Tasmania.

Why Football Clubs are formed is simple. Men with a common understanding come together and decide to play their chosen sport.

Caledonians, a group meeting of Scots in a milk bar. Rapid a group of workers at a Boarding House. Clarence, three SHSC players resident on the Eastern Shore.

However why do Clubs disappear?

Firstly I have taken a few at random and endeavoured to give a brief synopsis of their demise concluding with what I believe are common factors.

ALPS. Australian Labour Party Supporters. A happy group with no pretensions to greatness who decided to play football. Nothing more or less. Some where along the way they were persuaded to be SHSC 4th XI.

Things changed overnight. The subscription structure changed, SHSC couldn’t afford to be fined for odd socks and shorts. ALPS players were promoted up the ranks. Eventually the rump left and formed Hobart Wanderers. They soon found that running a Club was more difficult than anticipated. Someone has to do the paperwork, go to Soccer House, and make sure the regos are up to scratch. Things had changed whilst they were associated with SHSC.

The remnants now play as a Beachside social XI.

So what went wrong or changed? Is there a place for a group with no pretensions of greatness who want to play football?

Only if you toe the line and meet the ever-increasing FFT fees structure.

Caledonians. A group of Scotsmen with a romantic name that in the course of time became the best team in Tasmania. A Club whom anyone would have thought would have lasted forever. What led to their absorption into the Kingborough Soccer Club?
Why would a Metropolitan Club go to the country?

Did they ever recover from the financial burden of the original State League? Like others they certainly overstretched themselves. However in the long term others recovered. They certainly had under 19 or was it 18. But I don’t think they ever had a defined junior structure. David Hill delivered the final blow when they were compelled to change their name. West Hobart Lions didn’t sound the same.

P O Saints. They sprang from the loins of Taroona St Mirren. A core of Prison officers and semi retired ex Premier league players formed a Club. A competitive Division 1 side. They ran out of administrators. No one offered to fill the breach so the two or three workhorses pulled the plug.

St Leonards Rovers. I know nothing of their origins but was present on the board of FFT when they left. Their Chief never got to grips with the revised fee structure. With the forming of the State Wide body it was promised that fees would reduce. They did not. All that occurred was that the fee structure became universal throughout Tasmania.
This was the final straw to a struggling Club so they disappeared into the Carrick Social League.

George Town S C. A town that could support two Clubs that got together to form a Northern Powerhouse. Where are they now? Did the town fall on hard times? Did everyone grow old? Did they simply run out of people? Did the ruling body make life to difficult?

Launceston White Eagle. The name says it all about formation. I recall being defeated by a very good team at Dover Village. So what happened? Did everyone die? Did all the young people grow older, get married and raise children?

So what causes are common to some but not all.

They ran out of people to fetch and carry. They worked the willing horses to death

The players got old and were not replaced.

It just became too hard to meet the FFT administrative and financial benchmarks.

lack of a junior substructure to replace the departing players and
administrators

Soccer Tasmania did not have a sympathetic attitude toward the purely social Club.

They had conform to the norm.

Another contributing factor not often taken into account was a result of a series of well meaning but not evaluated decisions by past FFT Boards. At no time were the flow on effects neither calculated nor measured.


That Division 1 mirror the Premier League structure but consist of only standalone clubs.

That Division 1 should mirror the Premier league and have a Reserve grade.

In theory the statistics made these viable decisions. In practice the calculations failed to take into account the uneven spread of the talent.

Added to the above we saw FFT move Clubs from Divisions two and three to Division 1 to give the league critical mass. However no regard was taken of the talent pool available or the increased financial burdens that would be imposed. We have already seen some Clubs disappear from Division 1.

Let's be frank Huon Valley bit the bullet and now some years after accepting the move have returned to Divisions 3 and 4. If this decision had not been taken they would have disappeared.

Christian United after accepting a move to Division 1 have after a brief stay run out of legs and have disappeared never to be seen again.

Rapid who became Kingston Cannons who in turn became Southern F C are an example of a Club in long slow decline.

They never recovered from the name change and setting up in competition to Kingborough.

To add to their woes there was a loss of magic built on their past record.

Descending to Division 2 at the behest of FFT they at FFT’s request filled a gap in Division 1 to slowly see their player and administration pool disappear.

You may find this scenario distasteful but I fear they will be the next casualty unless their administrators take a long hard look into their crystal ball.

In the three cases outlined above I hold FFT to account. They to fulfil their long term plans asked Clubs to fill vacancies in the diminishing ranks of Division 1 without any regard to the clubs ability to meet the upgraded benchmarks and financial burded .

The exception that proves the rule is Nelson . They have survived through sheer hard work and establishing a junior base .