The NTJFA believe the north - Tasmania’s footy heartland can be Tasmania’s strongest footy region moving forward.
The association believes the time is now for northern juniors to go to another level with the league keen to engage with all clubs and the region on evolving the association to stimulate more growth.
With the support of AFL Tasmania, the NTJFA are set to embark on a major growth project with all NTJFA clubs in listening, learning and setting goals as part of the association's focus to significantly grow the game in northern Tasmania.
AFL Tasmania’s Northern Regional Manager Darrin Geard believes the region can continue to fight out of its weight division, and even better it.
"We have always been a strong footy region in terms of junior participation, senior success and draftees, but the scary thing is we can be better.
"The way to get there is we need more junior teams; team numbers in the NTJFA have been steady for some time and it's about to change and grow to new heights.
"Whilst time, energy and focus has duly been on the senior structure - the region needs to double down on juniors."
NTJFA President Josh Nast said junior footy is key to the growth of all clubs.
"The NTJFA want to turbo charge growth for girls and boys footy and we want to work with our clubs to get us there.
"We can have more participants per capita than anywhere in Australia - if we get our philosophies right and harness the power of the Devils.
“We have a responsibility to the region and to the NTFA, senior footy only improves through strong juniors – we have a great association with vibrant and committed clubs now it's our job to take it to the next level and be open minded about how we do it.”
Nast emphasised the need for the league to work together to grow.
“We need to consider new junior clubs and teams and how we can ensure strong and sustainable senior clubs and not let rules or rivalry trip us up on our growth agenda.
“Our time is now as a region.”
In the coming weeks both Geard and Nast will start consultations with stakeholders and clubs as part of their growth mission. This will include discussion on expanding age groups, strengthening the girls' pathway, exploring innovative entry-level competition opportunities, and removing barriers for new clubs and for existing clubs to grow their team numbers.
Geard said clubs need to be future focused to capitalise on the growing appetite for footy in the state.
“There will be plenty of attention on lopsided scoreboards in senior footy but to be honest for the future of our region the only scoreboard that matters is the number of junior teams and participants and growing that number.
“The Devils give us a superpower to grow the sport like we've never seen before and with it our footy heartland will only get bigger and better. We need focus on juniors and then we need patience for those kids to come through.
“With the regional academies from U13s in the region, pathways have never been better, but we need more players and with it we will see more Tassie talent out of the north at AFL and AFLW level.
“This has to start with strong Auskick and Under 8s, we need a growth mindset on how we explode participation in northern Tasmania.