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.

This was the first season of a return to statewide football after a hiatus of eight seasons caused by the collapse of the former TFL in December 2000.

The League was known as the Wrest Point Tasmanian State League under a commercial naming-rights sponsorship agreement with Wrest Point Casino in Hobart.

Participating Clubs

• Burnie Dockers Football Club
• Clarence District Football Club
• Devonport Football Club
• Glenorchy District Football Club
• Hobart Football Club
• Lauderdale Football Club
• Launceston Football Club
• North Hobart Football Club
• North Launceston Football Club
• South Launceston Football Club

TSL records

The Return of Statewide Football

For the 1986–2000 Statewide competition, see Statewide Football in Tasmania

After a hiatus of eight years, during 2008, AFL Tasmania announced plans for a return of the Tasmanian State League in 2009.

The concept attracted widespread public and media debate on the return of a statewide competition, with many in the football world hesitant over such a move due to the perilous financial position most of the participating clubs were left in after the previous competition was disbanded in 2000.

Many believed the push for a return of the league was a direct result of the media and the Tasmanian State Government's strong campaign in getting a Tasmanian team admitted into the AFL.

Under the AFL Tasmania plan, ten (10) clubs were invited to join the competition.

Clarence, Glenorchy, Hobart and North Hobart along with former Southern Amateur club Lauderdale in the South.

North Launceston, South Launceston and Launceston from the North and Devonport and Burnie Dockers from the North West Coast.

The response from many clubs was initially lukewarm at best with many concerned at the lack of detail in the AFL Tasmania plan and the rushed decision-making process of the move.

Ulverstone Football Club from the North West Coast bowed to pressure from its playing list and some factional groups within the club to put in a submission to join the TSL in 2009.

Despite a membership vote narrowly ending in favour of joining, the Robins had missed the AFL Tasmania enforced deadline and were initially to be included in the 2010 TSL Roster, however the remaining clubs (most notably its closest and most bitter rival Devonport) exerted considerable pressure upon the League not to alter the current makeup of teams for a period of ten years, therefore Ulverstone were excluded from joining.

SFL Premier League club Kingborough also lobbied AFL Tasmania to be included in the competition, but their case for inclusion was dismissed by the game's governing body due to their inadequate facilities and poor standard Kingston Beach Oval headquarters.

Former TFL club New Norfolk (1947–1999) was not invited to join the league because of their poor financial plight, however after the Eagles won the SFL Premiership with an undefeated season in 2009, there were calls to return them to top-flight status, however AFL Tasmania stated that there were no plans on the horizon to include a New Norfolk team in the competition in the near future.

As a result of the competition resuming, the Tasmanian Devils were removed from the Victorian Football League and were wound up.

On Monday 8 December 2008, the Wrest Point Tasmanian State League was launched at Wrest Point Casino in Hobart.

On 4 April 2009, the opening match of the reformed TSL competition took place at KGV Football Park between the reigning premiers of the SFL Premier League, Glenorchy and reigning NTFL premier Launceston and resulted in a 21-point triumph to the Blues.

The match was brought forward from Round 17 and billed as the "Battle of the State Premiers" given the extra spice created when the two clubs were due to meet at North Hobart Oval at the end of the 2008 season to play off for the Tasmanian State Premiership, but the match was called off due to Launceston's refusal to come to the Capital and participate in the match due to financial costs involved, with the NTFL refusing to fund the Blues match costs as the SFL had done with Glenorchy.

Season summary

As the season commenced Glenorchy, Launceston and Burnie were touted amongst most of the State's football writers as premiership favourites with Clarence also looming on the horizon as an ever-present threat.

Poor weather would plague the season, with several grounds falling victim to heavy Winter rain across the State, Hobart received its wettest Winter since 1954 (and wettest year since 1958), rendering most grounds into quagmires, most notably the TCA Ground, KGV Football Park, Lauderdale Oval and North Hobart Oval all being closed by their respective Councils for long periods or even having matches moved away from them.

Both West Park and Devonport Oval would also suffer from the deluge and similarly would end up in very poor condition.

As it panned out, Burnie and Glenorchy led the competition for almost the entire season, with Clarence making a late charge after an indifferent start to the season.

Launceston, despite getting off to a winning start would suffer from many injuries during the season and struggle to put their best side on the ground for lengthy periods and as a result struggled for consistency but still managed to make the finals.

Devonport coach Errol Bourne had written off his young side's chances before the season had started stating that they would be just making up numbers, but after a strong start, the Coastal Magpies would fall into a heap in the middle part of the season losing six games in a row before they made a last-ditch effort to secure a finals berth, their mission accomplished after a tremendous victory over Hobart at the TCA Ground in which they trailed by 35-points during the final quarter in heavy conditions.

North Hobart, North Launceston and Hobart would battle it out in the latter rounds of the season for the last finals spot, the Demons produced a fine victory in heavy rain at West Park to lock in sixth spot, while a woefully out of form North Launceston would lose three of their final four matches to drop out and Hobart, under the guidance of stalwart Graham Fox after coach Todd Lewis' mid-season resignation, with a youthful side had produced some excellent wins throughout the season after a nightmare start, but ultimately poor percentage and narrow losses to Lauderdale twice (the latter in near hurricane-like conditions at the TCA Ground which was close to being abandoned at half-time where only one goal had been scored) and Devonport (mentioned above) would come back to haunt them.

Newly promoted former Southern Amateur club Lauderdale would prove a difficult side to beat, especially on their home track, a lack of experience at State League level would see them struggle to win matches, but were far from disgraced in their first season whilst a very young South Launceston side would struggle again and finish last.

The finals series featured a Top Six for the first time, this was designed to give the finals series a more even blend of sides from the North and South owing to the uneven roster so as to ensure clubs played more games in their home regions rather than large numbers of away games to keep the travel costs for clubs to a minimum.

Clarence took on North Hobart at Bellerive Oval on 29 August in the First Elimination Final, the Roos were untroubled all day in heavy rain to race away to a convincing 43-point win whilst that night, Devonport Oval staged a night Second Elimination Final between Devonport and Launceston.

Also played in atrocious conditions, the Magpies posted a 35-point half-time lead and kept the Blues goalless, a third quarter rally saw Launceston hit back, but Devonport kept the Blues again goalless in the final quarter to run out convincing 37-point winners to book a date with Clarence.

The First Semi Final between Clarence and Devonport was originally scheduled for Sunday, 6 September at North Hobart, but owing to a week of constant heavy rain in Hobart, North Hobart Oval was closed by the Hobart City Council after junior football had inexplicably been allowed to be played on the ground during torrential rain the previous weekend which turned the ground into a waterlogged quagmire.

Fearing a backlash from the Southern Football League and the Old Scholars Football Association over the condition the ground would be left in after another match at the venue (both competitions had booked the ground to hold their Grand Finals in the coming weeks), AFL Tasmania then at the last minute, controversially switched the date and venue of the match back to the Saturday and moved it to Bellerive Oval as a curtain-raiser to the Glenorchy and Burnie Second Semi Final which prompted extreme outrage from the North West Coast media and the Devonport Football Club over the decision.

This meant that for the first time since 1921, no finals football was staged at North Hobart Oval.

The Roos, playing on their home ground never gave Devonport a sniff and raced away to a ridiculously easy 53-point win, while in the second match of the afternoon, Glenorchy made its way into the Grand Final by demolishing an out of form Burnie by 71-points in a magnificent display which had the critics raving and touting them as odds-on for the premiership.

Burnie and Clarence met in the Preliminary Final at Aurora Stadium on 12 September in perfect conditions.

After an even start, the Dockers began to get on top and eventually opened up a lead of more than four goals in the third quarter before the Roos steadied to reduce the margin to 13-points at three-quarter time.

In a magnificent game of football, the Dockers then posted what looked to be a match-winning lead midway through the final quarter before Clarence hit back with a succession of goals late in the game to hit the front.

With only seconds remaining, Burnie's captain-coach Justin Plapp was awarded a free kick 35-metres out, straight in front of goal when the siren sounded.

Plapp's resulting kick after the siren missed to the right and cost his side a grand final spot and sent the Roos into raptures.

The Grand Final on 19 September pitted strong favourites Glenorchy against Clarence, whose only hope seemed to be the fact that the match was being played on their home ground where their record was 10-nil for the season and where they were unbeaten since the opening round of the 2008 SFL Premier League season.

After looking ominous early Glenorchy failed to capitalise on their advantage, the Roos then shocked the Magpies (and the 7,534-strong crowd) by piling on six unanswered goals late in the second quarter in the rain to post a 30-point half-time lead.

Glenorchy hit back late in the third quarter to reduce the deficit to 15-points at three-quarter time, with the Roos kicking with the wind to the Southern Stand end in the final quarter.

After holding firm for much of the quarter, Clarence began to tire, Glenorchy putting enormous pressure on them in the final ten minutes but missed several chances to hit the front before Jeromey Webberley snapped a pivotal 60-metre goal for Clarence against the run of play to give the Roos valuable breathing space as another wave of attacks in the dying minutes from Glenorchy again proved ineffective, with the Roos hanging on to win the premiership by a solitary goal.

For the Roos, it was their sixth TFL/TSL premiership since 1993 and tenth senior flag overall in seventeen seasons including their eight seasons in the SFL Premier League.

As a side note, this was the first season at TFL/TSL level where crowd attendances at roster matches were not released to the public.

AFL Tasmania's reasoning prior to the season was that the competition was about clubs being able to run themselves properly and remain "in profit" rather than concentrating on crowd numbers at this stage.

Although no official roster figures were released, it is generally accepted that although numbers were reasonable early on in the season, crowd attendances nosedived by mid-season with a mix of odd fixturing and poor weather conditions affecting results, however, the Grand Final attendance of 7,534 was still the largest attendance at a domestic club football match in Tasmania since the 1999 TSFL Grand Final.

2009 Tasmanian State League Ladder

External links

• TSL Finals revamp – Hobart Mercury: 27 October 2009
• Clarence wins TSL final – Hobart Mercury: 20 September 2009
• Heazlewood's glittering prize – Hobart Mercury: 20 September 2009
• Siren may have sounded on Plapp's career – North West Advocate: 14 September 2009
• North West outrage at final switch – Hobart Mercury: 4 September 2009
• It's a conspiracy! – North West Advocate: 2 September 2009
• Quagmire forces semi final rethink – Hobart Mercury: 1 September 2009
• West Park won't host finals – Hobart Mercury: 6 August 2009
• Hoping for TCA green light – Hobart Mercury: 17 July 2009
• North Hobart in Dark Ages – Hobart Mercury: 16 July 2009
• Lights out at North Hobart Oval – Hobart Mercury: 15 July 2009
• Tassie back on map – Hobart Mercury: 8 June 2009
• Good Friday footy blasted – Hobart Mercury: 11 April 2009
• State League here to stay – Hobart Mercury: 2 April 2009
• Top gong for League – Hobart Mercury: 4 March 2009
• Hobart-Sandy Bay Juniors merger stalemate – Hobart Mercury: 11 December 2008
• Monthly pay for TSL – Hobart Mercury: 10 December 2008
• Blockbuster start for TSL – Hobart Mercury: 8 December 2008
• Ink dries on new League – ABC News Online: 8 December 2008
• Easter kick-off for TSL – Hobart Mercury: 11 November 2008
• Clubs snub TSL signing – Hobart Mercury: 30 October 2008