AFLNT CEO, Stuart Totham and AFLNT Competitions Manager, Darryl Griffiths, are on the road this week, making their way from Darwin to Alice Springs, via Katherine and Tennant Creek.
The journey will see Totham and Griffiths, as well as locally-based AFLNT Regional Development Managers, Julie Hunter (Katherine) and Wayne Green (Barkly) meet with various community and football stakeholders to discuss the current state of play in each of the regions and to start having conversations about the future.
Totham and Griffiths will be in Katherine on the evening of Tuesday 24 July, before making the 675km trek further south to Tennant Creek, where dinner has been organised with Barkly Australian Football League representatives for Wednesday night.
On Thursday, their journey will take them to Alice Springs where they will join representatives from AFLNT’s Central Australia office in holding a TIO CAFL Forum on Friday night, which is to be facilitated by members of the AFL strategy team from Melbourne.
The aim of the forum is to give local stakeholders an overview of how the competition is currently running and performing and to have an open and healthy discussion about the future direction of footy in the region.
Totham said he was looking forward to hearing from the local footy people and garnering a greater understanding of their competitions, the challenges faced and future success they’re dreaming up.
“Thanks to various funding partners and ongoing government support, we are very fortunate to have a great remote team who put in the hard work and harness the passion and love for Aussie Rules that exists out in the communities.
“Though AFLNT headquarters is in Darwin we are regularly updated on the happenings of the local competitions, regional academies and junior programs right across the NT but to get out and meet the people and talk with them will give us even greater insight,” he said.
The roadshow culminates with the Round 12 Swisse Wellness VFL W clash between NT Thunder and Casey Demons at TIO Traeger Park on Saturday morning, the first VFL W/ThunderW game to be played in Alice Springs.
This is then followed by TIO CAFL Round, with only three rounds remaining in the senior division before an exciting 2018 finals season.
