The 1883 Tasmanian Football Association Season Pictorial Record

The NTFA was proposed to be in its second season. The meeting to consider its continuation did not produce a result. City was recorded as the premiership club in Launceston. Railway became three time premier of the TFA. For the first time there were seven senior clubs represented in the TFA with Pembroke and Richmond as new senior clubs. A Midland Association was formed and included teams from Ross, Campbell Town, Oatlands and Hortin College. The first North v South match was played. South defeated North 6.18 to 1.10. Tasmanian delegates participated in the first Intercolonial Football Conference in Melbourne in November. Over 70 photographs and 300 player profiles make this the most pictorial record of the 1883 Tasmanian Football Season published to date. This publication is a part of a series that provides details of the season of the Tasmanian Football Association from its inception in 1879 through the colonial seasons. The early years of Association football in Tasmania have been little published. They should be recognised as the foundation years of football in Tasmania. This series of publications is the result of research to collect and collate the details of the seasons in the first years of organised football competition in Tasmania. These important seasons established Australian Rules football as an integral part of the sporting landscape of Tasmania. It has become very evident that the passion and fervour experienced now as players and followers of the game, was familiar to those connected with the game in this foundation era. The features of the game, attendances and interest in the game, made football a very significant feature of the sporting communities of Tasmania at the time. It is hoped that these publications make an addition to the documentation of these pioneering early years of football in Tasmania.