Football Tasmania
A number of young Tasmanians have been selected for national sides as a result of their participation in the NTC programs, including Luke Eyles and Paul Stevens.[3] Football Tasmania also administers the Tasmanian rollout of national soccer initiatives, including 5-a-side competitions, school visits and game development programs.This league is sponsored by Melbourne Victory and will feature eight teams; Devonport City, Launceston City, Northern Rangers, Olympia FC Warriors, Glenorchy Knights, Kingborough Lions, Hobart Zebras and South Hobart[4] Soccer was first played in Tasmania during the colonial period, but was never as popular as cricket, and the advent of Australian rules football in the mid-nineteenth century, soon saw that code surpass both rugby and football in popularity within the island colony.The first recorded organised match in Tasmania took place between seamen from the Royal Navy and merchant vessels, who formed a team in 1898, and challenged the soldiers from the Tasmanian Military Forces garrison at Anglesea Barracks.They were Trinity, (representing the University of Tasmania's Christ College), the Gunners (the soldiers from Anglesea Barracks) and Sandy Bay (army volunteers).The new migrants came increasingly to Tasmania from southern and eastern European nations such as Italy, Greece, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Yugoslavia, and for many of these new arrivals, football was the most popular past time.This period is often nostalgically referred to as the 'golden era' of Tasmanian football, and even featured visiting professionals from leagues such as Italy's Serie A, making guest appearances for clubs like Hobart Juventus.[10] The old pre-war powerhouses South Hobart and Sandy Bay were pushed aside, and migrant-community based teams Caledonians, Olympia, and Launceston Juventus began to dominate competitions.The early 1970s saw the rise of Hobart Juventus, who won four state titles between 1969 and 1973, including a staggering 13–5 aggregate score over Riverside Olympic in the two-legged final of 1973.White Eagles, a side which primarily consisted of players of Polish Australian extraction, began to announce themselves as a new power within the state at this time.Football Federation Australia'a efforts to rebrand the game, along with the Socceroos qualifying for the 2006 FIFA World Cup helped bolster the popularity of the sport within Tasmania.[9] In 2009 Hobart Olympic took the decision to revert to their ethnically affiliated name of 'Olympia', adding the epithet 'Warriors', and adopted a new logo featuring a Spartan warrior's helmet to further celebrate the Greek Australian heritage.