Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Tasmanian Champions League Your Thoughts

This Has Been asked to be posted by Captain Australia to get your ideas on this

I think the State Wide Championship is a great series, it has kept the season interesting until the very last league game for clubs like Ulverstone, Somerset, Riverside, Prospect in the north and Newtown, Kingborough, Clarence and Glenorchy in the south, it gives clubs something to play for and as had been said “finals are the Australian Way!”

I would change it slightly to go a little something like this

Tasmanian Champions League.

Going on this season’s results,

Top three from the north and the top three from the south qualify automatically for the following seasons Champions league, that would be from the south, South Hobart, Tilford Zebs and Glenorchy knights, with Northern Rangers, Devonport Strikers and Prospect Knights from the North.

4th and 5th from south and north would go into play offs at end of the year (Clarence United vs Kingborough Lions and Riverside Olympic vs Somerset Sharks) in a home and away round qualifying final with away goals counting.

At the end of each year you would have the 4 teams from north and 4 from the south, draw them into 2 random groups of four (done by FFT sometime), they would then play a home and away series (6 games in total) during the next year, we already play four games in the SWC anyway so you would be only finding an extra 2 weekends in the year for this.

Remainder of the clubs in the state will form the State Wide Vase (as in 2000 ) as a second tear comp. this gives the lower teams a greater chance of winning some silverware so it’s a win win

You would be left with the following in a State Wide Vase knock out Competition.
Hobart Olympic
Metro
Taroona
Nelson
Hobart Utd
Kingston Cannons
Newtown
Beachside
Kingborough Lions
University
Nelson
Launceston United
Launceston City
Burnie United
Ulverstone Reds
Somerset Sharks (presuming Sharks and Lions get beaten by there higher ranked opponent)

So they have 4 knock out rounds from round of 16 to the vase final any way to play during the 6 weeks the TCL would be playing.

The TCL could start a week before the season proper starts to get things rolling and finish on the week after the last round of matches.

Then following that, the top two in each group of the Tas Champions League would cross over to play each other, 1st from group one to play 2nd from group two and 1st from group two would play 2nd from group one in a home and away leg with away goals counting, the winners to advance to the State wide Champions League one game only final at KGV regardless of who is there.

If you still had the need to play the winner of the Northern League v the winner of the southern league for the State Champions game you could, but I cant see the point if you went with the above plan.

So you would have available in 2011

A Southern Premiership
A Northern Premiership
A Tasmanian Champions League Champion
A State Wide Vase Winner
Possible State Cup game.
Teams would be bustling for State Wide Champions League Qualification for the following season, while the State Wide Champions League sides would be trying to get into the top two in their group to qualify for the Tasmanian Champions League Finals.

This should in theory eliminate the all four southern teams in the State wide championship, but it still could end up that way if the random draw comes out right!

You get a far more comprehensive State Wide League taste and I think any team in their right mind would be after the Tasmanian Champions League mantel. FFT should probably make the final prize money allocation atleast even with NPL and SPL Premiers as to TCL champions winners cheque.

That’s my idea, I would be interested to hear your thoughts.
Regards