For more information, please click on the attached document.

Touch Football is a minimal contact sport that actively encourages physical fitness, team building, communication skills, hand-eye coordination, decision making skills and promotes mutual participation by both boys and girls. There is currently over 500,000 Australian school children who enjoy and participate in various forms of Touch Football. This participation rate ranks Touch Football as one of the highest participation sports for school aged children in Australia.

Touch Football Australia’s National Sport Operations Manager, Marianne Maguire, says that there are many benefits of playing Touch Football in an affiliated competition.

“There are over 310 affiliated local competitions in Australia and over 25,000 teams competing within those affiliates. They are competitions that provide a quick fitness fix,” Maguire said.

Children who participate in junior affiliated competitions are presented with a greater opportunity to develop their skills, understanding of the game and potential for representation. As a member of an affiliated association, junior participants have access to qualified coaches, they participate in games with qualified referees and they are also eligible to participate in regional, state and national tournaments. Another benefit is the link with the ASC and the accreditation of referees, coaches and other technical areas through ASC accredited programs.

One of the considerable benefits of being an affiliated association of Touch Football Australia is the insurance and legal reassurance of being an incorporated body.

Touch Football South Australia Sport Development Coordinator, Bri Wyatt, says that there are many benefits of juniors playing in affiliated Touch competitions.

“The main benefits are being active, so that’s one of our biggest focuses with our kids is making sure they are active and being involved. So the opportunity to run around, especially in a mixed sport as well, both boys and girls, having that interaction are then benefits,” Wyatt said.

Other benefits of Touch Football for junior players include that it is easy to learn, it is a cheap sport to play, there is minimal equipment needed and it isn’t a time consuming sport.

Carmel Good, mother of current Australian Men’s Open representative, Nick, says she would definitely recommend Touch Football to parents looking for a sport for their children to play.

“I chose getting him involved in Touch because they were all playing rugby league and it was a good off-season sport, that’s how we got involved.”

“I can’t tell you the benefits that Touch Football has given to our family, it’s been tremendous. For kids, it’s the fitness side of it and the friendships (are some of the benefits),” she said.

To find out where to play Touch Football in your area, please click on the map of Australia on the right hand side of the Touch Football Australia homepage at www.austouch.com.au

Play for life...join a sporting club is the Australian Sport Commission’s Community Sport Division’s national campaign. It is aimed at encouraging parents to support their children to join a sporting club.

The event will comprise of the 18’s Boys and Girls divisions and promises to bring the best youth players from across the country, with School, Permit and Representative teams all competing.

The event also brings the opportunity for referees across the country to take part and improve their skills at an elite youth event, and be coached by Australia’s leading Referee Coaches.

For more information, please download the attached documents.

In this interview we speak with Garry Lawless.

To view the video please follow the link http://www.austouch.com.au/index.php?id=865 or locate ‘MyTouch TV’ on the Touch Football Australia homepage www.austouch.com.au

The NTL entities which are Regions, Permits or States play a pivotal role at various levels within our strong pathway. The Elite 8 has been designed to compliment these structures and add a new pathway for the elite participant and therefore the progression of our game.

The Elite 8 is designed to bring the best players from across Australia into a new format which will take the sport forward. Worth noting is that the original NTL model designed in the early 90’s had a similar premise. Over time and debate this became what we now know as the NTL.

The Elite 8 will see a revised format of eight teams (four NSW, three QLD and one rest of Australia) compete in a high level structure at the NTL in March. There is no alteration requirement to any structure under the Elite 8.

TFA has subsequently liaised with the NSWTA, QTA and all other States to form the basis of the structure. This has been a cooperative and collaborative process whereby feedback has been taken on board throughout.

To read more about the Elite 8, please click on the attached document.

In this interview we speak with Cary Thompson.

To view the video please follow the link http://www.austouch.com.au/index.php?id=865 or locate ‘MyTouch TV’ on the Touch Football Australia homepage www.austouch.com.au

The TFA Referee Advisory Panel has recently been appointed, with the next step in the framework implementation being the appointment of the Referee Coaching Panel.

TFA is seeking Expressions of Interest (EOI) from suitable individuals to fill positions on the Referee Coaching Panel.

For more information, please download the attached document.

Touch Football Tasmania State Coordinator, Maree Tomlin, said the weekend was a big success, and was a great learning experience for the Tasmanian teams.

“It was awesome. The kids absolutely loved them. The big comment that our kids made was that they are ‘real’. I think they are so far removed from that level of the sport here and they see so little of it.”

“The big comment with Louise was that the girls thought she was fabulous, they kept saying ‘she’s so cool and so real and so down to earth’,” Tomlin said.

Tasmania’s Boys and Girls 12’s, 15’s and 18’s teams attended the camp, as well as some additional development players. And despite a lot of rain across the weekend, there was still plenty to learn.  Being indoors provided a great opportunity for the coaches to conduct video analysis sessions with the players and coaches. The group watched footage of touchdowns from previous National Touch League and Trans Tasman tournaments, with the players and coaches given the chance to ask questions about what they saw. The coaches opened up discussion by asking the players and coaches why the touchdown was scored, why the play broke down or what could the defence have done to have stopped the touchdown? This was a great chance for the players and coaches to think outside of the square and it complemented the work they had done earlier that weekend.  

Tomlin said that having this high level of coaching was an invaluable opportunity for the sides.  

“A lot of kids that we have at that level come from clubs where they don’t have a coach, they have someone’s parents coaching them. So even the kids that have been in the state teams for a few years and come up through different age groups, they used to say ‘I’ll come one day, but I have footy’ now they say ‘I’m not playing footy, I’ll spend the weekend at the camp’ so the kids are prioritising it because they get so much out of it.”

“And the new kids that came along, we had quite a few new ones, it’s amazing how much they improve so quickly because we haven’t hosted our teams, we haven’t trained yet together. Some of the kids didn’t know each other when they got there and just the social side of that weekend, they all bonded really well and they’ve all started to make friends. Now when they go into individual state training sessions, they already know each other and all know each other’s names,” she said.

There was also some theory and practical training for referees, an area that Touch Football Tasmania is experiencing major growth in at the moment. Currently in Devonport, there are so many referees that they can’t all get a game every week. They are now looking at taking some of their junior referees to the Launceston competition each week in order to give everyone a game to referee, as well as to continue their development.