1993 TFL Statewide League season

Participating Clubs

1993 TFL Statewide League Club Coaches

St Luke's Cup (Reserves) Grand Final

Statewide League Colts (Under-19's) Grand Final

Leading Goalkickers: TFL Statewide League

Medal Winners

Intrastate Matches

Area Of Origin Match (Saturday, 8 May 1993)

Interstate Matches

Interstate Match (Sunday, 6 June 1993)

State of Origin Match (Sunday, 6 June 1993)

Season summary

The 1993 TFL Statewide League season began on Sunday, 4 April with North Launceston recording a strong first-up victory over Devonport at York Park, the Robins along with Clarence - for many years seen as finals pretenders - were touted as the sides to watch with their respective leaders, former Carlton and South Melbourne VFL/AFL hard-man David Rhys-Jones (North Launceston) and former Sydney Swan Stevie Wright (Clarence) looking to put their stamp on the competition.

North Hobart, the reigning premiers from 1991 & 1992 had lost several players from their premiership teams and gained former Sandy Bay skipper Andy Bennett as coach, many in the football fraternity questioning whether the Demons would be able to cover their losses adequately while still struggling financially but the Demons were able to still produce excellent results to finish the roster season in second position, defying the critics.
Hobart would find 1993 as the year they began to crumble, after enduring prolonged success from 1986 to 1992, the Tigers lost captain-coach Mark Browning the previous October and the club had organised former Melbourne Demon Simon Eishold to replace him as coach, but owing to the club not being able to find Eishold or his wife suitable employment in Hobart (Tasmania's unemployment rate had hit 12.8% at this time), he resigned before the season started leading to a chain of events for the Tigers which was somewhat chaotic, finally the Tigers signed former St Kilda player Greg Lane as coach, but Lane himself, unable to commit to a full-time coaching role with his busy workload resigned after just five rounds of the season and was replaced by club stalwart Wayne Petterd.
After winning only two games in the first twelve rounds the turning point for the Tigers came against Clarence on 17 July, after trailing the Roos at half-time in a game in which Clarence had been heavily favoured in the free-kick count, Hobart's supporters exploded and field umpire Gene Phair was eventually assaulted in the race by an angry mob of Tiger fans.
A week later on 24 July was an even more remarkable display, with North Launceston trouncing the Tigers by 72-points in the second quarter at North Hobart Oval, Hobart went on a scoring spree from that point to reduce the Robins lead to just 1-point late in the final quarter before a goal to North Launceston seconds before the siren ended potentially the greatest comeback in TFL history.
The following weeks saw the Tigers form return and they would go on to shape the final five by winning four of their final five matches, including a last kick of the day loss to North Hobart on 14 August.

Glenorchy would shake off the disappointment of the previous three seasons and their near financial collapse to start the season in a blaze of glory by winning their opening six matches, their run stopped the week after one of the most controversial finishes to a match in Tasmanian football history on 22 May.

The Magpies, leading the Burnie Hawks by 17-points late into the last quarter in a fiery match at KGV in which there were seventeen reports, were awarded the game after the match was abandoned by central umpire Gary Dawson when Burnie Hawks' rugged defender Dale Whish-Wilson, earlier sent off the field for throwing a football at boundary umpire Peter Walker's head, ran back onto the field after Hawks player Leigh Heath sustained a corked thigh.
With no available players left on the bench to replace Heath, Whish-Wilson claimed he had asked the emergency umpire if he was allowed back onto the field and that the emergency umpire had just "shrugged his shoulders" at him, and therefore re-entered the playing field to take up his position when spotted by Dawson, he was ordered three times from the field by umpire Dawson and on television replays replies "No way! at the umpire in charge.
After refusing to leave the ground, the field umpires then abandoned the match and left the field in a scene of pandemonium as brawls broke out in the stands and eventually spilled out onto the streets outside the ground between rival supporters.
After a week of meetings, the TFL decided that the match would be declared as a forfeit by the Burnie Hawks with 4:53 remaining in the match, with the match scores at the time of the abandonment standing.
For his part, Whish-Wilson claimed he had been victimised by the field umpires all afternoon because of his reputation but was still handed a ten-match suspension.

For Glenorchy, they would struggle from that point and win just four more games for the season to limp into the five by virtue of a final round victory over Sandy Bay at Queenborough while the Hawks would continue on in fine style under former Geelong player Michael Shulze and cement a top-four position.
New Norfolk would start the season with great optimism, but after an opening day defeat to Sandy Bay at Boyer, Darren Denneman's Eagles would struggle to maintain any sort of consistency throughout the season and eventually needed to defeat an in-form Hobart at Boyer in the final round to make the finals, Hobart proved too good all day for a disappointing New Norfolk and Glenorchy, on the back of four losses in a row were able to defeat Sandy Bay at Queenborough to leapfrog them into the finals.
The southern matches played on 12 June (Round 8) featured heavy snowfalls while the matches were in progress, with the matches at North Hobart, Queenborough and Boyer all affected.

At the other end of the table, Sandy Bay started the season well with a young squad under Chris Fagan, only a year after the Seagulls required a major "Save The Bay" fundraising drive to raise enough funds for it to even stay in the TFL, the Bay finished the season on a disappointing note by winning only one of its final ten matches as more calls came out for the struggling club to merge (this time with Hobart) and to move away from the outdated Queenborough Oval and relocate to North Hobart Oval.

South Launceston would continue to struggle, the TFL was so concerned with the health of football in Launceston that a forum gathered in June to discuss ways to improve the health of the sport in the North, the Bulldogs had always under-performed and were continuing to do so and had very little support, North Launceston, despite good on-field results were struggling for crowds and the general interest in the sport in the region was seen to be falling quite significantly which was bad news for a financially stricken TFL that was now servicing a debt of more than A$300,000.
The TFL and General Manager Barry Breen were now looking at increasing teams for the 1994 season with the possibility of both Launceston and Ulverstone being called up to join the Statewide League.

The finals series began on 28 August with North Hobart and North Launceston doing battle at North Hobart Oval, the Robins finally ending their hoodoo against the Demons with a fantastic 18-point win in a classic confrontation.
The following day the Elimination Final featured Burnie Hawks and Glenorchy, again at North Hobart Oval, the choice of venue was not a popular one with the Coastal club who had finished two games clear and a significantly higher percentage above Glenorchy.
The two clubs who had fought out a controversial match earlier in the season would face off in a thrilling finish to the match, the Hawks had been too good for the first three quarters and still held a 27-point lead at the final change.
In the final quarter Glenorchy found form and played their best football for several months and produced an amazing ten goal final quarter to overrun a disappointed Burnie Hawks' team by 13-points.

The Second Semi Final would prove to be a dress-rehearsal for the Grand Final with Clarence and North Launceston locking horns in a hard fought match at North Hobart.
The Robins and Roos had been in a see-sawing encounter with Clarence scoring the decisive break in the third quarter with 4.7 to 1.4 for the quarter to eke out a slender two goal lead at the final change, despite inaccuracy in the final quarter, Clarence would run away to win the match by 24-points to make their first Grand Final since 1985.

Glenorchy and North Hobart would battle it out in the First Semi Final on 5 September at North Hobart Oval.
North Hobart, after a slow start and trailing Glenorchy by a point at half-time, went on a ten-goal third quarter rampage as a powerless Magpie outfit could do nothing to stop an ominous looking Demon team from racing away to an impressive 73-point win.

In the Preliminary Final on 5 September, the two old rivals North Hobart and North Launceston would meet at a cold and showery North Hobart Oval.
The Demons were aiming to become the first club to win a hat-trick of premierships since Sandy Bay in 1976, 1977 and 1978, while the Robins were hellbent on denying their much-hated rival any attempt at glory, more so on their home ground.
After leading for the first three quarters North Hobart appeared to be headed to another Grand Final and keeping the dream of the treble alive.
In the final quarter North Launceston produced an amazing comeback, with steady rain falling, the majority of the 3,306 strong crowd against them and kicking to the Domain (scoreboard) end, the Robins produced a withering six goal to one burst to snuff out the Demons' fire and march into their third Grand Final in four years by 13-points, the visiting Robins fans celebratingly wildly in the Demons own end of the ground which led to some confrontations amongst supporters.
For the Demons, this was to mark the end of their glorious reign in the Statewide League which realised four premiership titles in seven years, in a few years North Hobart would sink to the lower reaches of the ladder and struggle to survive under crushing financial problems.

The Grand Final on 18 September would see two good friends, North Launceston's David Rhys-Jones and Clarence's Stevie Wright lead their prospective sides into battle at North Hobart Oval for premiership glory.
In what was recognised as one of the finest Grand Finals in the history of Statewide football, the Robins had gotten out to a solid lead in the second quarter before Clarence chipped away at their lead to reduce it to 15-points at half-time.
In the third quarter it was again North Launceston looking particularly dangerous, at the midway stage of the quarter Clarence went on a withering run producing seven goals to eventually hit the front nearing three-quarter time against a shell-shocked North Launceston.
In an even final quarter Clarence had eventually sneaked out to a match-winning lead before the Robins had one final tilt at the premiership, reducing the lead to only 9-points late in the game, the Robins once again were steaming forward as the siren sounded to give an ecstatic Clarence the flag for the first time since 1984.

Round 1

(Sunday, 4 April, Saturday, 10 April & Monday, 12 April 1993)

Round 2

(Saturday, 17 April 1993)

Round 3

(Saturday, 24 April 1993)

Round 4

(Saturday, 1 May 1993)

Round 5

(Saturday, 15 May 1993)

Note: This was the first night match played in TFL history.

Round 6

(Saturday, 22 May 1993)

¹ This match was abandoned with 4:53 remaining in the final quarter after Dale Whish-Wilson (Burnie Hawks) returned to the field after being sent off in the third quarter and verbally abused and threatened the umpires. The TFL ruled that the match was forfeited by the Burnie Hawks with scores being final, and Whish-Wilson was suspended for 10 matches for his conduct.

Round 7

(Saturday, 29 May & Sunday, 30 May 1993)

Round 8

(Saturday, 12 June 1993)

Round 9

(Saturday, 19 June 1993)

Round 10

(Saturday, 26 June & Sunday, 27 June 1993)

Round 11

(Saturday, 3 July 1993)

Round 12

(Saturday, 10 July 1993)

Round 13

(Saturday, 17 July 1993)

Round 14

(Saturday, 24 July & Sunday, 25 July 1993)

Round 15

(Saturday, 31 July 1993)

Round 16

(Saturday, 7 August 1993)

Round 17

(Saturday, 14 August 1993)

Round 18

(Saturday, 21 August 1993)

Qualifying Final

(Saturday, 28 August 1993)

Elimination Final

(Sunday, 29 August 1993)

Second Semi Final

(Saturday, 4 September 1993)

First Semi Final

(Sunday, 5 September 1993)

Preliminary Final

(Saturday, 11 September 1993)

Grand Final

(Saturday, 18 September 1993) – (ABC-TV highlights: 1993 TFL Grand Final)