Southern Football League (Tasmania)
Current season, competition or edition: 2016
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| Formerly | Southern Tasmanian Football League (STFL) |
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| Sport | Australian rules football |
| Founded | 1996 |
| No. of teams | 9 |
| Country | Australia |
| Venue(s) |
List
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| Official website | SFL website |
The Southern Football League is an Australian rules football league which is based in Tasmania, Australia.
The Southern Tasmanian Football League (STFL) was founded in 1996 with the league's original clubs being those of the recently defunct Tasmanian Amateur Football League – Southern Division (Southern Amateurs) and two clubs from the Huon Football Association.
In that first season the competing clubs from the Tasmanian Amateur Football League (Southern Division) were Mangalore (Brighton), Lauderdale, Lindisfarne, Claremont, Sorell and Lachlan and from the Huon Football Association, Kingston (Kingborough) and Channel.
Despite the lopsided results from many of the matches in its first two seasons, the STFL was beginning to rival its long established counterpart, the TFL Statewide League for attendances, community involvement, players and money as players and fans alike became tired of the politics and negativity that permeated through a floundering TFL at that time.
With the demise of the 114-year-old Huon Football Association at the end of the 1997 season and financially crippled former TFL club Hobart opting to pull out of the Statewide League at the end of the same season and voting to join the STFL, the league was ready for an influx of new teams as one of its foundation clubs, Lachlan, went out of business at the end of 1997.
Kermandie (then known as the Robins) and Cygnet (then known as the Magpies) were forced to change playing uniforms and emblems (to Bushrangers and The Port respectively) owing to clashes with already established clubs Brighton and Claremont.
Huonville Bulldogs merged with fellow Huon Football Association rival Franklin Lions to become the Huonville Lions and thus joined the STFL in 1998. Hobart (then known as the Tigers) were forced to change their emblem and playing strip owing to a clash with Kingston (Kingborough).
From 1998, the STFL would be known as the Southern Football League. As the league continued to go from strength to strength, the TFL Statewide League was sinking as crowds continued to slide and clubs sank further into the financial mire.
New Norfolk District Football Club, a member of the TFL since 1947 left the TFL at the end of 1999 and joined the SFL in 2000 as the New Norfolk 'Derwent' Hawks.
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