Touching Base Affiliate Mailbag Answers /

Most Recent Questions

What are the competition dates for the National Youth Championships (NYC) in 2024?

The 2024 DoorDash National Youth Championships will be held from Wednesday 25^th to Saturday 28^th September 2024 at C.ex Coffs International Stadium, Coffs Harbour. Read more here.

With the new annual membership model and particularly in states where the state fee is also added could this open up opportunities for a more social membership. Similar to basketball pickup games where you can just turn up to a court and play whoever is there. Could this open up the possibility for members to turn up to an oval on a Sunday afternoon pay $5 and play footy... self reffed 10 on 10 if they want in a social environment where you are turning up when you can, not locking yourself into a 12 week season?

We agree that the new model does open itself up to many opportunities for the game but at this stage we aren't in a position to modify the model. As with any major change in structure, we want to ensure that it works seamlessly for all end users and to solidify the process. This may take 12 months or more to get everyone comfortable and we can then see what is next, be agile and meet the needs of the community. 

Previous Questions

Is there going to be a NSW v QLD State of Origin series as has been for the last few years? If so, where and when will it be held?

Touch Football Australia does not run the NSW v QLD State of Origin series. For more information on this event please reach out to NSW Touch or QLD Touch.

With the new membership fee changes could you please tell me how this will affect the use of casual players? Will they need to pay the national membership fee $22 before they can play as a casual player? If so, will we be able to see that they have paid this fee before we allow them to play as a casual?

We don’t want to turn away the casual player in this model and we do highly encourage them to be registered to cover insurance if something inevitable occurs. We are happy to look into the option in the future for a casual members membership fee. Ideally, we would like to present the best possible experience and the casual player turns into a full participant and then brings all their friends along and forms a new team to enjoy our great game.

Could Touch Football Australia please explain why affiliates in the Northern Rivers area of NSW are NOT under NSWTA control? ie Murwillumbah's competition is affiliated with "Touch Football Australia (TFA)" then Bilambil and South Tweed are in the "Queensland & Border Districts" zone. The flow on effect is the Northern Eagles region is weakened and South Queensland Sharks are strengthened. Any chance of the Northern Eagles region being split into North and South is impossible because these affiliates mentioned above go north to Gold Coast. 

TFA does not set regional representative boundaries in NSW or QLD. Please address this matter with Queensland Touch Football and/or New South Wales Touch Association.

Following on from the question regarding Kayo. With around1M subscribers for Kayo, what ballpark viewing figures do our games get. Any idea how this compares with other sporting events such as Lawn Bowls, Hockey etc...? What particular events see an uplift in viewers i.e., NTL finals day. Is NSWTA using Kayo for their events included in the strategy for the sport to consolidate onto one streaming platform or are they not contributing to TFA strategic priorities.

Broadcast and viewership figures are commercial in confidence so we cannot answer this question unfortunately. NSWTA have been approached to place their events on Kayo and are considering the opportunity.

In the current strategic plan (2021-24) under the performance pillar, a key priority is "Enhancing Alliance state performances at domestic competitions". In 2022, at NTL in Opens and 20s divisions there were 6 teams entered from Alliance states, with one making a Semi Final, another a Quarter Final, and 3 of the remaining 4 teams participating finishing last. At NYC there were 26 teams across all divisions with only 2 teams finishing in the top 10 in their division and vast majority making up the bottom placings. What plans are in place for the remaining two years of the strategic plan to try and enhance the high-performance programs in each of the alliance states. 

Each Alliance State is responsible for their own representative program and strategies vary per state. In recent times States have focused on growing grassroots participation to build a strong foundation from which representative performance can grow. Finishing positions are not the only measure of performance and the increased number of Alliance State Teams at NYC is a key initial step to improve overall performance.

Why were the NTL games not live streamed on YouTube? Why can we not watch the fully replay of games on YouTube either?

TFA has a media rights agreement with Australia's leading sports streaming platform Kayo Sports. Under this agreement Kayo Sports have exclusive streaming rights to TFA content including the NTL, therefore matches cannot be uploaded elsewhere. A key strategic objective of the current TFA Strategic Plan is to consolidate streaming to a single broadcast platform. With over 1M subscribers, many of whom are not current participants, Kayo provides mass scale for Touch Football to be showcased to a broad audience enhancing the ability to grow the sport and fan base through increased exposure and awareness. The NTL can be watched on Kayo.

When is the NRL Touch Football Premiership being played?

The NRL Touch Premiership is still very much in our planning to recommence at some stage in 2023. However, a national broadcast competition on the scale and size of this has many moving parts and considerations which all need to be carefully explored. We are currently working with the NRL to determine the feasibility and optimal timing for all stakeholders. Stay tuned.

When a person goes into the NTL player pool and helps a region in desperate need of players, why are they expected to pay the exorbitant fee? ie some franchises are asking three times more than others to play at the same tournament. Surely this fee could be wavered. 

The $55 player pool fee is charged to compensate the significant administration and time required to complete the process above and beyond standard tournament administration tasks. In addition to this, unfortunately some individuals have historically abused the player pool process to manipulate the eligibility rules of the tournament. Therefore the fee validates the legitimacy of the player pool request.

Regions or entities set their own tournament levies independent of TFA due to the varying cost structures of each region/entity. This causes the disparity of pricing. TFA's fee to participate in the event is capped at $110 per person regardless of which entity is represented.

On the very bottom of the Touching Base newsletter there are 20 sponsors. Presumably they pay TFA money to appear in various places as advertising. As a park player, besides direct marketing emails to my personal address, what do I get from the cash they pay to TFA?

TFA works closely with a range of valued commercial partners that enable us to deliver the strategic and operational programs of the sport.

Primarily, the revenue generated through partnerships enables TFA to fund programs and operations without increasing national affiliation fees, which in turn keeps the sport affordable for participants. In fact, TFA hasn’t increased national affiliation for well over a decade thanks largely to the support of our partners, despite costs increasing year on year.

In addition to this major benefit our partners regularly provide exclusive offers and discounts to touch football participants. Current examples of this include up to a 20% discount available on all Bristol Paint products in store, 35% off PainAway products and regular discount codes to purchase food and groceries on DoorDash just to highlight a few of the many benefits participants receive. Of course DoorDash have also just announced $100,000 worth of funding for affiliates, which for successful applicants will further enhance the participant experience and grow the sport through the provision of equipment, uniforms and infrastructure projects.

What is the breakdown of affiliation fees in QLD?

This question is best directed to QLD Touch who should be able to assist with your enquiry. Touch Football Australia (TFA) does not set state affiliation fees.

Why is NSW State Cup not on Kayo?

This question is best directed to NSW Touch. The TFA Strategic Plan seeks to position all events to a single broadcast platform so we’re certainly striving for this outcome in time and will continue to work with NSW Touch (and QLD Touch) on this strategy.

Please can we get a white referee shirt? Our affiliate has many teams with pink or red shirts (over many years, teams were encouraged not to wear white, because this is the refs colour).

We acknowledge that there will be an adjustment period as with any change however there are no plans to create a white referee shirt.

Why didn’t you ask the affiliates or referees for feedback before changing the uniform? White is the referees colour, not pink. Why should our teams have to change their shirt colours when they are the ones paying to play our sport?

The decision to change the referee uniform was an extensive process that involved feedback collated from referees at both representative and grassroots level over an 18 month to two year period. The overwhelming feedback from referees was that white was not the preferred colour due to its tendency to become stained through sweat and dirt and become see-through when wet making the wearer uncomfortable. At no time to date or in the future will any directives be given to teams to change the colour of their shirts at affiliate competitions.