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Tasmania
- Thread starter 23.21.159
- Start date
Back on the topic of the NTFA and Launceston plus North Launceston footy clubs.To give everyone a sense of what a farcical state Tasmanian football is in. Can only laugh at the circus going on with the restructure of regional leagues.
As a bit of background. The State League has been limping along for a number of years. Been a lot of noise to go back to a regional model of footy, as not many support a state league (not that many people watch local footy full stop anymore in Tasmania, mind). Has only coughed along propped up (only just) by the AFL.
So with the planned introduction of the Devils in the AFL and VFL. It has been decided to put all resources into that project and scrap the state league, going back to regional footy from next year.
As it was, the two north western clubs (Burnie and Devonport) had quit the state league and gone back to regional league footy a few years ago, so no representation from that region. They have dominated the NW league ever since. And one of the three Launceston clubs (South Launceston) were kicked out as reigning Premiers (bizarre) one year. So you were left with a league of seven - five from Hobart, two from Launceston.
The five Hobart clubs I think had mixed views about going back to regional footy, but didn’t seem overly hostile to it. Probably because they can go back to playing among themselves and grab one more club to join them in a six club premier division in the south.
The two Launceston clubs though (Launceston and North Launceston) were vehemently against a return to regional footy. They really have dominated the state league as it is. Were searching for extra competition. Thus going regional is even worse for them and they fear a huge talent drain to other state leagues (already happens).
The northern league (NTFA) were charged with the task of creating a pool of clubs to form a northern premier league for the specific purpose of absorbing Launceston and North Launceston into the regional set up. So they grabbed four clubs (some logically strong clubs, others dubious choices), to join with the two state league clubs. League launched with much fanfare. All four existing regional clubs there for the photoshoot. But conspicuously, no Launceston and North Launceston turned up to launch a league formed for the specific purpose of accomodating them.
Today, they both come out in the media saying they will not join this proposed northern premier league set up specifically for them. Get stuffed! You really can’t make this up. Benny Hill music.
So as it currently stands, Tasmania’s two strongest clubs of the past decade haven’t got a league to play in next year.
The NTFA clubs have voted to suspend them from the association, due to offence and insult caused.
That is, Launceston and North Launceston have been suspended from an Association they are not members of, that they don’t want to join.
You couldn’t make this circus up up. So ridiculous.
I read Australian R.L and Wallabies great Simon Poidevin’s book “ For love not money” by Jim Webster.
Where he got his head stomped and raked. Half his scalp was hanging off. Bloody tough game and they weren’t paid the big money they get now.
His International career 1980-1991.
Some accounts that Peter Fitzsimmons gives of his early international duty, when he was a young fringe member of the squad earning his stripes, are an interesting read.
He said tours of France were on another level, plying his trade, playing against French Provincial squads. He said tours of the British Isles were rugged, which was typical of the time. But just a different culture in France that made it all the more barbaric.
Gouged out eyes, ruptured testicles and torn scrotums, cracked open skulls from deliberate head kicks (while blokes lying on ground defenceless).
Old mate Hopo was more than just one match of pointing out directions, just took a while for the no neck bum sniffers to get agitated n upset by a random having a rummage up their butt cracks.
Rugby Union, the game made in heaven or something like that. Pretty sure there was a totally legit n acceptable tactic called raking the ball, or something like that. Just allowed players to stomp on heads n hands at the bottom of the packs with no consequences.
There has always been an unwritten rule in the ARL/NRL about no deliberating kneeing to give a corkie to another player. It is considered a dog act. To the French, it is not just accepted but encouraged!
One Australian (I can't remember who, but he played for the Wallabies) tells a story of playing Rugby in France against another side who had a sadist in their team who ignored every decent convention about not deliberately injurying other players. In one particular game he kneed a young guy from the Wallaby players' team in the jaw while the kid was lying prone in a maul, breaking the jaw so badly the kid suffered permanent nerve damage that affected one side of his face.
In revenge, the French players from the kids team deliberately kept targeting this guy's knee from the side when he was on the ground. They got him to, fracturing his thighbone from memory. But to make sure the lesson was learnt, with this guy screaming in agony, another chap grabbed his injured leg and started twisting and reefing it, pretending to be trying to pull him out of the pack.
The Australian player said he felt nauseous when he realised what was going on.
What relation is this whish Wilson to the senator?1988 TFL Statewide League season - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
“In one of the most violent matches seen in Tasmanian football for years, the Hawks would race away with the match early and not give the disappointing Demons a sniff.
Hawks defender Dale Whish-Wilson sparked off much of the violence when he was reported for an ugly incident involving North Hobart's Mark McQueen in the third quarter, some 60-metres behind play.
So angry were the North Hobart players that the whole Demon team raced in to confront Whish-Wilson, Burnie Hawks coach Warren "Putt" McCarthy had ordered Whish-Wilson from the ground after the incident and as he was leaving the ground the Demon players chased him over the boundary line, across the cement bike track and over the fence in front of the Frank Matthews Stand to continue the brawl.
In a media interview after North Hobart's 63-point loss, coach Garry Davidson lashed out at the umpiring standards, labeling them 'a joke' claiming his 'younger players were bashed out of the match by thugs with no protection whatsoever from the umpires'.
For his part, Whish-Wilson was suspended for four matches by the TFL tribunal, a suspension which also riled Garry Davidson for its leniency, and Devonport police announced its intention to charge Whish-Wilson with assault following the incident on McQueen and he was later charged and sentenced to serve 49-hours of community service orders. McQueen spent two nights in the North West General Hospital following the incident.”
Not sure there is any known linkage.
Senator Peter Wish-Wilson wasn’t born in Tasmania. He was born in Singapore. Not sure if his parents even were of Tasmanian origin (that bit I’m not really sure of).
He served some time in the Army after going through RMC. Then went through University in WA. Had a career in banking in Australia and Asia. Then came to Tasmania as a lecturer at UTAS in business. I have a few mates that had him teaching their courses in the late 90s/early 00s.
