Most recent season or competition: 2022 | |
Formerly | Northern Tasmania Football League (1987–2014) |
---|---|
Sport | Australian rules football |
Founded | 1987 |
First season | 1987 |
CEO | Morgan Hughes |
President | Andrew Richardson |
No. of teams | 7 |
Country | Australia |
Most recent champion(s) | Devonport Football Club |
Most titles | Ulverstone Robins (9 titles) |
Official website | nwfl.com.au |
The North West Football League is an Australian rules football competition in North West Tasmania. The league was previously known as the "Northern Tasmanian Football League" from its inception in 1987 until the end of the 2014 season.
The Northern Tasmanian Football League (NTFL) was founded in 1987 to replace the Northern Tasmanian Football Association (NTFA) - no relation to the current NTFA - and the North Western Football Union (NWFU) which suffered as a result of the defection of clubs joining the new TFL Statewide League in 1986 – the NTFA had lost North Launceston and East Launceston to the TFL Statewide League at the start of 1986, then lost City-South midway through that season when it merged with East Launceston; the NWFU lost Devonport and Cooee to the Statewide League at the conclusion of the 1986 season.
After the collapse of the Statewide League at the end of 2000, the northern and coastal clubs from that competition returned to the NTFL and dominated the competition for the next eight years (Burnie and Launceston won the next eight premierships between them). With the revival of the Statewide League in 2009, the same five clubs left the NTFL again (North Launceston, South Launceston, Launceston, Burnie and Devonport), resulting in the contraction of the league to a six-club coastal composition.
In the early years, the NTFL was contested by a mixture of smaller northern and north-western clubs, but the northern clubs gradually departed, and since 2009 the league has been contested solely by clubs from the north-western coast, all with a NWFU history. Consequently, at the end of the 2014 season, the name of the league was changed to the North West Football League (NWFL). [1]
In 2015, Burnie and Devonport rejoined the competition, each fielding its reserves team in the NWFL seniors while continuing to field its senior team in the Statewide League reserves; this increased the league numbers up to eight. [2] In early 2017, Burnie withdrew from this arrangement, which dropped the number of teams down to seven. [3] Then, in 2018, Burnie and Devonport withdrew their senior teams from the Statewide League and each entered the NWFL proper. [4] The league's senior premiership is now contested by seven clubs.
Colours | Club | Nickname | Region | Home Ground | League years |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Burnie | Dockers | Burnie | West Park Oval | 2001–08, 2015–16 [note 1] , 2018–present | |
Circular Head | Saints | Smithton | Smithton Football Ground | 1987–2018, 2022–present | |
Devonport [5] | Magpies | Devonport | Devonport Oval | 2001–08, 2015–present | |
Latrobe | Demons | Latrobe | Darrel Baldock Oval | 1987–present | |
Penguin | Two Blues | Penguin | Dial Park | 1987–present | |
Ulverstone | Robins | Ulverstone | Ulverstone Recreation Ground | 1987–present | |
Wynyard | Cats | Wynyard | Wynyard Football Ground | 1987–present |
Colours | Club | Mascot | League years | Fate |
---|---|---|---|---|
Burnie [note 2] | Tigers | 1987–93 | Merged with the Burnie Hawks | |
Deloraine | Kangaroos | 1987–2003 | Joined the NTFA Division I | |
East Devonport | Swans | 1987–2020 | Club seniors in recess since 2021 | |
Launceston [note 3] | Blues | 1987–93, 1998–2008 | Joined the Tasmanian State League | |
Longford | Tigers | 1987 | Joined the NTFA Division I | |
North Launceston | Bombers | 2001–08 | Joined the Tasmanian State League | |
South Launceston | Bulldogs | 1998–2008 | Joined the Tasmanian State League | |
Scottsdale | Magpies | 1987–99 | Joined the NTFA Division I | |
South Burnie | Hawks | 1997–98 | Joined the Darwin Football Association |
The Northern Tasmanian Football League is considered to be one of the strongest leagues in the state and has a strong supporter following. Games in the NTFL average around 500 spectators.
The Tasmanian State League (TSL), colloquially known as the Tasmanian Football League (TFL) (formerly known as the Tasmanian Australian National Football League (TANFL) and several other short-term names) is the highest ranked Australian rules football league in Tasmania, Australia.
Australian rules football in Tasmania, has been played since the late 1870s and draws the largest audience for a football code in the state.
Burnie Dockers Football Club is an Australian rules football club in Burnie Tasmania, Australia. The club currently competes in the North West Football League (NWFL).
The Ulverstone Football Club, nicknamed the Robins, is an Australian rules football club based in Ulverstone, Tasmania, Australia. The club fields three teams in the North West Football League and also fields two junior teams in the AFL Tasmania North West Competition.
West Park Oval is an Australian Rules football, cycling and athletics venue located on the shores of Bass Strait in Burnie, Tasmania. It is the current home of the Burnie Dockers in the Tasmanian State League and previously in the NTFL and in the original TFL Statewide League.
The Wynyard Football Club is an Australian rules football club based in Wynyard, Tasmania.
Devonport Football Club is an Australian rules football club based in Devonport, Tasmania. The club currently competes in the North West Football League (NWFL). The club previously competed in the Northern Tasmanian Football League, but from 2009 it joined the newly reformed Tasmanian State League, where it played until withdrawing before the 2018 season.
Harold Kennedy "Joe" Littler was an Australian rules footballer who played for South Melbourne in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He also had a long career in Tasmania playing in the Northern Tasmanian Football Association, North West Football Union (NWFU), and the North West Football Association (NWFA).
The North West Football Union (NWFU) was an Australian rules football competition which ran from 1910 to 1986. In its time it was one of the three main leagues in Tasmania, with the Tasmanian Football League and Northern Tasmanian Football Association representing the rest of the state. Burnie, Latrobe and Ulverstone were the most successful clubs with 12 premierships each.
The Tasmanian State Premiership was an Australian rules football tournament which was contested at the conclusion of the season, initially between the reigning Tasmanian Football League (TFL/TANFL) and Northern Tasmanian Football Association (NTFA) premiers, and then from 1950 also by the NWFU premiers, to determine an overall premier team for the state of Tasmania. The state premiership was contested 57 times between 1909 and 1978.
The Latrobe Football Club is an Australian rules football club based in the town of Latrobe in northern Tasmania. The club competed in the North West Football Union throughout the competition's entire existence from 1910 until 1986, and has competed in its successor, the North West Football League, since 1987. Latrobe was one of the most successful NWFU clubs, and its tally of 12 premierships is a joint record shared with Burnie and Ulverstone. It was the only club to win four successive NWFU premierships, achieved from 1969 to 1972. In 2013, it became the first Tasmanian club outside of the State League to be inducted into the Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame.
The South Launceston Football Club is an Australian rules football club currently competing in the Northern Tasmanian Football Association. They were formed through a merger between City-South and East Launceston in 1986, clubs in the former Northern Tasmanian Football Association. South Launceston was in the TFL Statewide League from 1986 to 1997, then the Northern Tasmanian Football League until 2008, then in the Tasmanian Football League until 2013.
The Winfield Statewide Cup was an Australian rules football tournament held in Tasmania, Australia between the top twenty-one (21) major football clubs across Tasmania from the three major footballing bodies across the state, the TANFL, the NTFA and the NWFU.
The Greater Northern Football League (GNFL) was an Australian rules football competition played between the fifteen (15) major football clubs across Northern Tasmania from the two major footballing bodies across the north of the state, the Northern Tasmanian Football Association (NTFA), and the North West Football Union (NWFU) in 1981 and 1982.
The 2009 AFL Tasmania TSL premiership season was an Australian rules football competition, staged across Tasmania, Australia over eighteen roster rounds and six finals series matches between 4 April and 19 September 2009.
The North Western Football Association is an Australian rules football competition based on the North West Coast of Tasmania, Australia.
The 1997 TFL Statewide League premiership season was an Australian rules football competition, staged across Tasmania, Australia over twenty roster rounds and six finals series matches between 12 April and 20 September 1997.
This was the twelfth season of statewide football and the League was known as the Cascade-Boags Draught Super League under a dual commercial naming-rights sponsorship agreement with both Cascade Brewery in Hobart and Boag's Brewery in Launceston.
At the conclusion of this season four clubs left the competition owing to severe financial problems.
Hobart, in debt to the tune of $450,000, were already advised by TFL executives that they would not be granted a renewed licence to continue on in the TFL after this season and decided to join the SFL from 1998, both South Launceston and Launceston continued to find onfield success minimal and were also servicing large debts that looked likely to continue to grow and promptly pulled out of the competition and rejoined the NTFL from 1998 whilst Sandy Bay, unable to find a merger partner, was wound up at season's end and became defunct.
The East Devonport Football Club is an Australian rules football club based on Devonport, Tasmania. The club competed in the North West Football League since 1987 until going into recess in 2021. The club currently has a full junior program in the NWFL.
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.
The 1967 Tasmanian State Premiership Final was an Australian rules football match played between the Wynyard Cats and the North Hobart Robins on Saturday 30 September 1967 at West Park Oval, Burnie, to decide the winner of the 1967 Tasmanian State Premiership. One of the most controversial games in Australian rules football history, the match was declared no result and the premiership was withheld after fans invaded the field and eventually took down the goal posts, preventing North Hobart full-forward David Collins from taking a kick after the siren which would likely have won or tied the game for the Robins.