Official website nwfa.net.au | ||
Sport Australian rules football Founded 1894; 123 years ago (1894) | ||
The North Western Football Association is an Australian rules football competition based on the North West Coast of Tasmania, Australia.
Contents
Origins
The North Western Football Association was formed at a meeting at the Formby Hotel in 1894 and is the oldest continuously running football competition in the state of Tasmania. The first clubs were Devonport, Latrobe, Mersey and Ulverstone.
The NWFA was the senior football body on the coast until a break away group of teams formed the NWFU in 1910.
The NWFA was then looked upon as a junior competition feeding the NWFU and later the TFL Statewide League until their demise and later the NTFL teams.
The competition has seen more than fifty teams participate in its history from all parts of the North West Coast indicating the rise and fall and changing fortunes of many towns throughout history. Clubs such as Burnie Tigers, Cooee Bulldogs, Penguin, Mole Creek, Wilmot, Barrington, Don, East Devonport, Moriarty, Sassafras, Melrose and Gowrie Park are among many to have played in the NWFA.
From mid-1938 until it went into recess during World War II, the NWFA played under VFA rules, a code of rules established by the Victorian Football Association as a rival to the national rules. This most notably meant that throwing the ball was legal during those years. The NWFA was one of the highest level competitions outside the VFA to play under those rules. Upon its resumption after World War II, the NFWA returned to playing under the traditional rules.
The Association currently operates as a nine club competition and the medal awarded to the Association's Best & Fairest player is the Les Hicks Medal.
Current NWFA Clubs
NWFA Record Score
Forth reserves - 66.24 (420) v Spreyton 0.0 in 2013.