AFL Northern Territory (AFLNT) wish to thank the TIO Northern Territory Football League (NTFL) Clubs for their engagement in evolving the competition for this season and into the future.
During the offseason, the competition launched the 2020/21 TIO NTFL Season review with Club Presidents based around four major improvement pillars which include competition structure, game environment, club development and patron experience.
AFLNT worked with the Clubs to create a truly engagement focused approach, by building relationships and meeting structures to ensure greater communication and input from club’s key personnel. This engagement process included groups like Junior operations, Complaints Officers, Treasurers, and Trainers on top of the normal By-Laws and Presidents forums.
The competition will review its structures and alignments to help build a more sustainable model. It was important to ensure all current clubs were viable before a realignment was activated. The priority for the recent off season was to ensure club’s undertook governance training and create competitive balance measures to secures these clubs futures.
The key implementations for the 2021/22 TIO NTFL Season are the introduction of the Under 12, Under 14 and Under 16 girls’ teams to complete the female football pathway, which now aligns the Junior pathway through to Seniors.
As part of the Junior and Youth competitions, we will see the introduction of E-Point. This is a proven program, implemented by Leagues in New South Wales, Western Australia and Tasmania which has seen dramatic improvement in these competition game environments. This model rewards teams with extra premiership points if they create a fun and safe environment for everyone involved.
To ensure Club sustainability, a competitive balance Terms of Reference, endorsed by the AFLNT board, has been implemented. Palmerston Magpies and Tiwi Bombers have received some assistance to aid club growth and for the 2021/22 season and only applies for the single season.
AFLNT Community Football Manager Leigh Elder said the competition will continue to work with the TIO NTFL Clubs to continue budling on improved governance and alignment for the future.
“We will continue to work with the clubs to build an improved aligned model for the future, as we acknowledge there is still plenty work to be done,” he said.
“We thank all that have assisted the NTFL through this process. Change is never easy, but we appreciate everyone’s hard work in improving the League we love.”
The TIO NTFL also sees the re-instatement of the NTFL Insight which includes important League information such as Round information, fixtures, team lists and articles. Insight’s are available at all Premier League games and sold for $3 each.
For digital fixtures, ladders, Premier League live scores and team sheets, punters can visit the AFL instated community football platform, Play HQ.
