South Hobart have capped one of their most successful seasons by being recognised as Football Tasmania’s Club Changer Club of the Month.
The acknowledgement comes in the wake of the men’s team securing a league and cup double and just a few weeks before they represent the state in the Australian Championships.
Club Changer’s focus for September is on governance which South co-president Ed Swan said is a critical foundation for any successful club.
“It supports the organisation to have a perspective on the fundamentals of what makes a successful community club, and on identifying and prioritising what's important,” he said.
“(It) enables real work, activity and outputs - and hopefully outcomes - over weeks, months and across seasons.”
Swan said the fundamentals of governance have not changed but remain a work in progress.
“We have sought to implement known good practice and to fundamentally reflect our members and their priorities, and our place in the community of football.”
South aim to be an aspirational and exemplar club by implementing a range of strategies.
“It's not a set and forget thing,” Swan explained. “We've done a lot of work on collectively understanding our role and our place - as a board, and as a club; what's important and what we'd like to do and improve; and then trying hard to hold each other to account for progressing and actioning our strategies.
“These strategies relate to sustaining and nurturing our club and community strengths, and focusing on the fundamentals including maturing a safe club culture for players, coaches and parents; delivering a consistently high quality and challenging training environment; and providing a fun and inclusive community club for all.”
Founded in 1910, South Hobart have been Tasmania’s most successful football club. They have won the state championship a record 20 times, including the first two seasons of the Victory League (2013-14), and since the introduction of NPL Tasmania have never finished outside the top three, winning in 2017 and 2025.
This season’s Lakoseljac Cup triumph was the club’s seventh while teammates Nick Morton and Kobe Kemp shared the NPL Tasmania best and fairest award with Launceston City’s Angus Taylor.
The D’Arcy Street club also finished runners-up in both the NPL under-21 and Women’s Super League competitions.
Swan said there were several questions all clubs can ask to assess their governance.
“What's working well for you? Are there recurring issues, problems or areas that you'd like to address? Are you well set up to address these and leverage your strengths? Do your governance and supporting people processes and practices enable you to make the most of your resources and capabilities? What can you do now, in a week, in a month, and next season to progress?” he said, before adding: “I'm happy to chat with clubs about some of the mistakes we've made!”
Picture caption: Members of the South Hobart board (L-R) Ricky Oates, Vicki Morton, Rhys Edwards, Abbey Doggett, Tania Dawkins, Ed Swan and Craig Cooper.