Latest / WCBH / Marcus Ashcroft on Touch Football's Big Play: NT Titles, Growth and Goals

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Marcus Ashcroft on Touch Football's Big Play: NT Titles, Growth and Goals · WCBH

• 0:18
  I'm with Marcus Ashcroft, CEO of Touch Football Australia, who's in town for the NT titles.
• 0:23
  Marcus, thanks for joining us on WCBH and welcome to The Top End.
• 0:28
  G'day Cam, yeah, thank you for having me. I really enjoy my time up here and
• 0:31
  as usual, the weather's spot on, so thanks for having me.
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  Yeah, you picked a good time of year to come. Is it the first time you've been
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  up here in your role as CEO of Touch Football Australia?
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  No, I've been here, this is my third time now. I've been in the role now for
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  12 months and And I've managed to get up here three times.
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  I really enjoy getting up to Darwin, Alice and the NT.
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  So I'm glad I could be around for their NT state titles on the weekend.
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  Yeah, that's so good. Many people would recognize your name from your achievements
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  in AFL, 300 plus game player, premiership winner with the Brisbane Lions.
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  Can you talk about your journey into touch football?
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  Yeah, absolutely. It's one that I was really excited about at the beginning.
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  So 12 months, as I said, I've been in the role.
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  Was approached by the chairman, Christian Frost, over a year ago now to go through
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  a process to be part of the team.
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  And the more and more I was involved in the process, the more I was attracted
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  to it with such great opportunities available to touch footy right around the country.
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  A great group of people at board level, staff, volunteers, there are such just
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  great communities across the whole country.
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  So the more I got involved in that process, the more I wanted to be involved
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  in the game. And looking back after 12 months, I couldn't be happier.
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  Being a former Lions player, are you a Queenslander?
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  Have you grown up playing touch footy at school lunches and in the backyard?
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  Is it part of your bread and butter?
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  Yeah, I have. I was raised on the Gold Coast in South Queensland and went to a, well back then,
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  probably not going to show my age, but back in those days, It was only rugby
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  league and rugby union, so I went through the pathway of playing league,
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  played some touch at school.
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  My kids went to a rugby union school and played union, played touch,
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  and my wife was a representative touch player.
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  So touch has been part of our life, even though AFL was the majority of it.
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  But yeah, we know the game really well and really love it.
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  Touch football is huge in some schools. I think it was 2016,
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  I coached a team and we went away. It was at Kiwana.
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  I think it was the National Championships, National Schoolboy Championships.
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  And just how impressive it was, the schools that actually have touch football
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  academies based at the school.
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  They were amazing footballers.
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  Yeah, and this is such a great game. Even as an entry sport for young kids,
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  I think it's safe. Parents these days like the non-contact option.
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  We're very inclusive. And 8% of it, the people that play our game are Indigenous,
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  Torres Strait Islander.
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  So we have a wide and broad spectrum
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  of player. And that's not to mention referees, coaches, volunteers.
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  Across the country, there's over 700, 800,000 that are involved in the game.
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  And especially up in the Northern Territory, we just think it's a great option
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  for young people to get involved in, to be active, to be healthy.
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  And also for the parents to know that it's a safe environment.
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  You're right. It is such an inclusive game and it really is a game for everyone.
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  I know when I stopped playing league, I kept playing touch football a couple
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  of nights a week. You go from your social level through to your elite level,
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  representative level, men's, women's, mix, juniors, seniors, overage players.
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  Really, there's a type of game for everyone in the touch football world.
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  100%. And we know that the skills are really transferable.
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  So if young kids want to enter, play touch, and then go off and play AFL or
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  NRL, whatever it is to be, we always find that they always come back because
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  we have people playing the game that are in their 60s and 70s.
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  So the age demographic ranges from 6 to 70, 80 years of age.
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  And it just provides those transferable skills for those that want to go and
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  play different sports and also come back to it later in life.
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  Let's talk the NT titles. How many teams are there? What's the shape and the
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  structure of the competition?
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  Yeah, so we've grown this year. We've got 22 teams involved.
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  We knew out of participants, referees, coaches and volunteers.
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  There's over 400 people involved, which is a great number.
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  Tyson, the state manager, has done a great job with his team,
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  Kieran and Michael, and putting on a great event where all those people get
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  to be involved in it, but at the same time,
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  we've got teams that are coming from as far and wide as Gove and Kununara in WA,
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  Catherine, so it's not just Darwin-related teams, but teams from across the
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  state and also interstate.
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  And that's obviously a good sign for the game because if teams are coming in
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  from Gove and Catherine and Kununuri, et cetera, obviously there's a local competition
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  there feeding the players into those teams.
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  Absolutely. And then we're all about growth. Having these events with the teams
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  coming from far and wide is a great story to tell.
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  And we're all about ensuring we give as many people that want to be involved
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  in there, again, the chance to access these sort of events.
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  So to have them coming from as far as that, it talks in volumes to how our team
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  has been able to get the teams to come here and be involved and have a great experience.
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  Let's talk about the strategic plan. I think it's called The Next Play.
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  Like there's a number of activities taking place while you're up in Darwin,
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  not just the NT titles, but coaching clinics and other things to assist the growth of the game.
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  Yeah. So we went on a six to nine month journey to develop with the consultation
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  of our community, a seven year strategic plan, which we review yearly.
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  And we're really proud of what we put together. It's very strategic in ensuring
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  that we grow the game ultimately, but it's also divided into four pillars,
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  which are key in ensuring the game is nurtured.
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  We showcase our talent pathways, but we also look after those that are really
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  critical to being part of our game, and that's our participants,
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  volunteers, coaches, and referees.
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  So it's part of what we're doing this weekend, as you said.
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  We've invited up Phil Guymore, who is our men's opens coach of the EMUs.
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  He's come up to do some coaching training.
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  Courses and other things he did one on thursday
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  night will be involved friday saturday we've also
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  got a community call on friday
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  to invite all the local clubs and
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  affiliates to come in and hear what's going on at touch football australia and
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  we're all about just being available and accessible so those in the community
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  can ask questions we're not here to lecture or talk to we're here to get as
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  much information as we can to make sure we can improve the game so So it can
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  be attractive to many more people.
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  And you've spoken there about some of the things that are happening at the grassroot level.
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  What about at the other end of the spectrum, the elite level,
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  the international level? How's the game progressing there?
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  Yeah, we had Asia-Pacific champs last week in Mudgee, where Australia retained
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  the Trans-Tasman Trophy, which is a competition between Australia and New Zealand,
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  obviously the two leading nations in the world.
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  So Australia have retained that. But we have a duty as a nation to ensure that
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  the growth of the game internationally is developing and growing.
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  So we lend resources internationally for that.
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  Also, from a national point of view, we had our NTLs back in March at Coffs Harbour,
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  and we're looking at evolving that next year to be at the same time but more
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  of an elite pathway, so inviting all the very best regions around the country to be part of that.
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  And we want to get players from
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  the Northern Territory area to be involved in teams at that event too.
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  So we'll be working really hard on the talent pathways between now and next
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  year through our state manager Tyson and his team to ensure we get some players
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  from here, which we know are up to the level, a chance to expose themselves at a national level.
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  Yeah, there's some pretty dominant clubs running around in the NT competition, Turf, Inferno, Crocs.
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  You know, we've got some very long-term clubs based in touch football and bringing on their players.
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  With the international game, is it bigger than Australia and New Zealand?
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  Like, does it sort of parallel the rugby league playing countries?
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  Yeah, it does. And it's really grown. Fit, the Federation of International Clutch,
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  have really grown the international teams over the last year.
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  We've got close to 50 that play the game, which is a great number.
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  We obviously still have aspirations to make an Olympics.
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  2032 is probably not going to be the year for us, but we're also considering
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  years beyond that to be part of it.
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  So from an international standpoint, we're not giving up hope for that to happen and occur,
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  but we're also ensuring that we can help grow the game by sending coaches and
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  referees internationally to grow the game in Southeast Asian countries,
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  the Pacific Island countries.
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  As I said, we've got 50 international teams that now play at that level and
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  that will continue to grow over the next few years.
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  The, it'd be amazing if it did end up Brisbane 2032, but I sort of take what you said there.
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  Look, I love watching touch football on television when I can pick up a game.
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  Just there's such a difference between backyard footy, which a lot of people
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  have grown up and then what the elite touch football looks like.
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  I think it's really made for broadcast.
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  Like if we could get that into the Olympics, the distance that the players can pass,
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  the speed the diving the the plays the
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  fitness level of it we're talking elite athletes here
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  aren't we oh no doubt and as we
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  said we spoke about the transferable skills but you have to be quick and you
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  have to be agile and you have to have a really good endurance base we if we
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  look at AFL and NRL players playing at the professional level the Bronco test
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  which everyone's familiar with that's that's that happens at I fell and NRL level we got players.
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  That in the top echelon in an elite sport like NRL and NFL. So we know our athletes
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  are as good as any in professional spaces.
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  And you're right, watching it on TV or on broadcast, it really is a great spectacle.
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  And we're really happy that on Sunday when the finals happening from 2.30pm,
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  it's going to be broadcast live on Bar TV.
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  So a great opportunity for anyone that's not going to be at the venue to be
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  able to jump onto Bar TV and watch the finals on the last day on Sunday.
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  Yeah, how good is that? Well, let's run through the details because it does
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  start this evening, doesn't it? First game to tap off at 5.20.
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  5.20, yeah, probably 10 o'clock tonight, which is a good start.
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  We've got a full day of games tomorrow starting in the early afternoon.
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  And we've got under-14s, under-18s, men's and women's opens,
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  and also seniors mix, which is those aged between 30 and 50.
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  So 22 teams, a lot of touch over
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  the first two days which are six round games
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  and then all the games on sunday which are broadcast live on
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  bar tv will all be finals games so some great touch
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  footy to come and watch live and if not watch it on bar tv
• 11:39
  yeah fantastic we've been talking with marcus ashcroft ceo of touch football
• 11:44
  australia here in the territory for the nt titles so get on down to trl stadium
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  friday saturday and sunday for the nt titles or pick it up on the live stream
• 11:55
  marcus thanks so much for joining us on WTBH.
• 11:57
  Thank you, Cam. Thanks for having me, Mark.