The Tasmanian State Premiership was an Australian rules football tournament which was contested at the conclusion of the season, initially between the reigning Tasmanian Football League (TFL/TANFL) and Northern Tasmanian Football Association (NTFA) premiers, and then from 1950 also by the NWFU premiers, to determine an overall premier team for the state of Tasmania. The state premiership was contested 57 times between 1909 and 1978.
History The Tasmanian State Premiership was an official match that determined the winner to be awarded the title of Tasmania's best domestic football team. It started as an unofficial North versus South club match in 1904, and from 1909 it gained official status on the Tasmanian football calendar.
It ran as a match between the premiers of the TFL/TANFL and NTFA, alternating between the TCA Ground (Upper Cricket Ground) and the NTCA Ground until North Hobart Oval and York Park became the premier venues in the South and North. A perpetual trophy known as the Bulldog Cup, established in 1915 but not awarded until the next State Premiership in 1920, was awarded to the State Premiers throughout the competition's history.
In 1950, the NWFU was added to the state premiership on a trial basis; under the arrangements that year, the NTFA and NWFU premiers played off against each other in a preliminary final, and the winner faced the TANFL premiers. The following year, due to feelings that the football season was too long, that the state premiership tended to draw lower crowds than other special fixtures, and a dispute over whether or not the Queenstown Football Association should also have been eligible to compete, it was decided to abolish the fixture. However, the TANFL and NTFA premiers still played an informal state premiership game at the end of the 1952 and 1953 seasons, and the state premiership was formally re-instated in 1954 with the TANFL, NTFA and NWFU all competing. On a rotating basis, one of the three leagues would host and qualify directly for the final, and the other two leagues would play off in the preliminary final.
There were a total of 57 formal State Grand Finals between 1909 and 1978, with sixteen different clubs taking out the title: North Hobart (12), Cananore (10), City/City-South (7, plus one unofficial), New Town/Glenorchy (5, plus one unofficial), Launceston (5) and North Launceston (3, plus two unofficial) won the most titles. TANFL clubs won 33 of the 57 state premierships; NTFA clubs won 17 state premierships; and NWFU clubs won 6 State Premierships from 24 opportunities.
There were several occasions when competing teams would have a guernsey clash; in these circumstances, it was most common for each team to wear its league's intrastate representative guernsey, rather than its own club guernsey.
In 1972, 1973 and 1975, the Tasmanian State Premiers were invited to contest the Championship of Australia, a knock-out tournament which featured the premiers of the VFL, SANFL and WANFL.
In 1974 the Tasmanian regional premier teams, namely City-South, Burnie and North Hobart, sent a combined team featuring players from each premier team to contest the Championship of Australia.
By the 1970s, the State Premiership had begun to show a decline in interest from football patrons and was taken less seriously by the clubs and on 1 October 1978, the final match was played at West Park Oval between Cooee and Sandy Bay in front of a crowd of only 3,860.
The 1979 State Premiership series did not proceed, but the idea was not dead. In 1980 the three regional leagues contested a State Premiership series in the first 6 weeks of the season. This was sponsored by Winfield cigarette company and the State Premiership was won by Hobart.
In the period between 1981 and 1985 the leagues could not agree on the most viable format for a Tasmanian state premiership competition. Finally in 1986 two NTFA Clubs determined to field a senior team in the TFL. The two teams accepted were North Launceston and East Launceston. Within a short 6-week period of commencement East Launceston fully merged with City-South and became South Launceston.
In 1987 two Clubs from North-west Tasmania, Cooee (named Burnie Hawks) and Devonport (named Devonport Blues) joined the TFL and it became a truly Statewide Premiership Competition. There were 6 teams from Southern Tasmania, and 2 each from Northern and North-west Tasmania.
Since 1986 the winners of the Tasmanian Football League premiership are considered 'state premiers'. The seasons from 2001 to 2008, when the Tasmanian Devils were playing in the Victorian Football League and the local clubs played in regional competitions, there were no 'state premierships' contested.
Controversial results
1913 Tasmanian State Premiership The 1913 State Premiership decider was awarded to Cananore on forfeit after Launceston objected to the central umpire engaged for the match and refused to play. The umpire in question, C. Dwyer, had umpired in the North vs South intrastate match earlier that year, and his performance had been criticised in the North. The off-field aftermath of the incident, which stretched for almost a year, resulted in a massive breakdown in diplomatic sporting relations between the North and the South. It began when the TFL imposed a suspension on the Launceston club and its players as penalty for its forfeiture. Due to the nature of affiliations between their associations, the TFL's suspensions were recognised by the Tasmanian Amateur Sports Federation – which included cricket, swimming, rowing, tennis, etc. and was affiliated with all of the equivalent mainland sporting bodies – which meant that no sporting body in Australia was permitted to stage or compete in an event featuring a banned Launceston footballer, or they themselves could face suspension. The North vs South cricket match on Boxing Day 1913, for example, was cancelled by the South because the North selected a Launceston footballer in its team. The NTFA, which supported Launceston's right to forfeit, refused to recognise the suspensions, and called off all intrastate fixtures with the South; Launceston continued to play in the 1914 NTFA season, and each other NTFA club earned its own suspension from the TFL when it played against Launceston – suspensions which were also duly ignored by the NTFA. Launceston's suspension was lifted in June 1914 after a begrudging truce was reached, in which both sides conceded "expressions of regret" and neither side extended an apology. By that stage, a farcical state of affairs existed under which many players, clubs and bodies had been issued suspensions by the TASF, and about half of the TASF's members had simply ended their affiliations to take themselves outside the influence of those suspensions.
1967 Tasmanian State Premiership
The 1967 decider between Wynyard and North Hobart at West Park Oval in Burnie was declared a "no result" after a sensational finish to the match when Wynyard fans invaded the playing surface and tore the goal posts out of the ground to prevent North Hobart's David Collins from scoring the winning goal after the siren. Collins had remained on the field with the match ball tucked up his jumper waiting for umpires, players, team officials and police to clear the playing surface, but NTFA umpire Jack Pilgrim had already left the ground under police protection; after waiting for a lengthy period of time and with the crowd parading the posts around the ground, Collins also left the field.
Finals
Year Winner Score Runner-up Attend. Venue 1909 Cananore 6.10 (46) – 2.6 (18) Launceston NTCA Ground 1910 Cananore 7.14 (56) – 4.5 (29) City 3,000 Upper Cricket Ground 1911 Cananore 16.18 (114) – 1.4 (10) North Launceston Upper Cricket Ground 1912 Lefroy 8.9 (57) – 4.10 (34) North Launceston Upper Cricket Ground 1913 Cananore Launceston 1914 North Hobart 8.18 (66) – 4.9 (33) City 5,000 Upper Cricket Ground 1920 North Hobart 7.8 (50) – 2.14 (26) Launceston 5,000 NTCA Ground 1921 Cananore 13.14 (92) – 8.8 (56) City 8,000 Upper Cricket Ground 1922 Cananore 28.22 (190) – 9.8 (62) City York Park 1923 North Hobart 20.13 (133) – 18.8 (116) North Launceston 8,000 North Hobart Oval 1924 Lefroy 6.3 (39) – 5.5 (35) Launceston 6,000 York Park 1925 Cananore 20.17 (137) 9.12 (66) North Launceston 6,000 North Hobart Oval 1926 Cananore 7.10 (52) 5.20 (50) Launceston York Park 1927 Cananore 12.20 (92) – 10.15 (75) North Launceston 5,700 North Hobart Oval 1928 City 9.10 (64) – 3.14 (32) North Hobart York Park 1929 North Hobart 11.12 (78) – 9.15 (69) Launceston 6,000 North Hobart Oval 1930 City 14.10 (94) – 5.6 (36) Lefroy York Park 1931 Cananore 7.7 (49) – 7.6 (48) North Launceston 3,070 North Hobart Oval 1932 City 7.14 (56) – 7.8 (50) North Hobart York Park 1933 Launceston 13.16 (94) – 12.13 (85) Cananore 5,860 North Hobart Oval 1934 Launceston 8.11 (59) – 5.12 (42) North Hobart York Park 1935 Launceston 15.17 (107) – 6.6 (42) New Town 5,253 North Hobart Oval 1936 North Hobart 9.7 (61) – 6.8 (44) Launceston York Park 1937 Launceston 16.9 (105) – 12.12 (84) Lefroy North Hobart Oval 1938 Launceston 16.9 (105) – 5.9 (39) North Hobart York Park 1939 North Hobart 13.13 (91) – 12.13 (85) City 5,800 North Hobart Oval 1940 North Hobart 16.20 (116) – 9.6 (60) Launceston York Park 1941 North Hobart 13.18 (96) – 12.19 (91) City 3,960 North Hobart Oval 1945 North Hobart 12.12 (84) – 11.11 (77) Launceston 5,000 York Park 1946 Sandy Bay 13.13 (91) – 12.13 (85) North Launceston 7,852 North Hobart Oval 1947 North Launceston 19.16 (130) – 10.9 (69) North Hobart 7,500York Park 1948 New Town 16.9 (105) – 16.7 (103) North Launceston 8,387 North Hobart Oval 1949 North Launceston 13.17 (95) – 8.7 (55) New Town 8,407 York Park 1950 North Launceston 14.9 (93) – 8.10 (58) v Hobart 10,006 North Hobart Oval 1954 City 9.16 (70) – 6.10 (46) Hobart 6,951 York Park 1955 Ulverstone 19.12 (126) – 12.13 (85) Longford 11,000 York Park 1956 New Town 10.10 (70) – 8.10 (58) City 7,350 North Hobart Oval 1957 Longford 14.16 (100) – 12.7 (79) North Hobart 12,546 York Park 1958 Glenorchy 7.11 (53) – 6.11 (47) Burnie Tigers 8,873 Devonport Oval 1959 Hobart 14.11 (95) – 9.14 (68) Burnie Tigers 13,223 North Hobart Oval 1960 City-South 15.17 (107) – 12.17 (89) Burnie Tigers 9,986 York Park 1961 North Hobart 13.8 (86) – 8.10 (58) Cooee 8,000 West Park Oval 1962 North Hobart 11.10 (76) – 9.10 (64) Burnie Tigers 7,640 North Hobart Oval 1963 Burnie Tigers 8.25 (73) – 6.13 (49) North Launceston 6,490 York Park 1964 Cooee 15.16 (106) – 14.14 (98) Scottsdale 9,700 West Park Oval 1965 Glenorchy 11.16 (82) – 9.8 (62) Scottsdale 13,762 North Hobart Oval 1966 City-South 10.15 (75) – 9.13 (67) Hobart 8,652 York Park 1967 8,289 West Park 1968 New Norfolk 9.13 (67) – 7.12 (54) Scottsdale 11,395 North Hobart Oval 1969 North Hobart 26.20 (176) – 6.13 (49) Launceston 10,371 York Park 1970 Latrobe 15.10 (100) – 9.11 (65) Clarence 9,778 Devonport Oval 1971 Sandy Bay 12.14 (86) – 8.17 (65) Latrobe 11,629 North Hobart Oval 1972 City-South 14.14 (98) – 8.14 (62) Latrobe 10,551 York Park 1973 Scottsdale 16.20 (116) – 15.13 (103) Cooee 8,269 West Park 1975 Glenorchy 18.24 (132) – 16.12 (108) North Launceston 8,654 North Hobart Oval 1976 Ulverstone 17.19 (121) – 10.14 (74) Launceston 6,827 York Park 1978 Cooee 19.25 (139) – 16.17 (113) Sandy Bay 3,860 West Park Oval
Notes
Unofficial State Premiership Matches The match was an official part of the Tasmanian football calendar between 1909 and 1978 but unofficial matches took place in 1904, 1905, 1906, 1952 and 1953. There was no decider of any description in 1907, 1908, 1951, 1974 or 1977.