The new competition will feature six round games and a combined semi-final and grand final night, and will run between the 6th of September and 1st of November. It includes a two week break to allow representative players to attend both the National Youth Championships and the QLD All Schools.
The competition is being driven by TTF Finance Director Cherrie Pierce, who has worked closely with a core group of parents and coaches across the competition's target age group.
Pierce believes that the new competition will provide a way to keep players in the 17-20 age group engaged with the sport and says that one of her major aims is to provide a format which would suit the target age-group's current commitments during the summer season.
"We've got a lot of players who have aged out of the current junior competition and aren't able to play in our social mixed or men's competitions because they don't have the time and sometimes the money to commit to a full regular season."
"Teenagers at that time of the year are busy with exams and work, so by keeping it short we can keep down the costs yet still run a strong and competitive competition."
The competition also provides an opportunity players who have aged out of TTF's current junior competitions and still want to play competitive touch football but aren't quite ready to step into the existing Mixed or Men's competitions.
"There's a lot of players that are now too old to play in our junior competitions, but don't yet have the time, money, or interest to play in our regular adult competitions, so a shortened and cheaper competitive competition will let them stay involved in the sport that they love."
While not its sole objective, one of the competition's other aims is to strengthen TTF's representative programme, which has undegone a significant rebuilding over the past twelve months and which is now focused towards November's QLD State Cup.
Pierce, who was also the manager of TTF's recent Under 18 Boys side at July's QLD Junior State Cup, hopes that the new competition will provide an avenue to develop and select a strong Under 20's Men's side for this year's QLD State Cup.
"There's such a strong group of players in the [17 to 20] age group and this competition will help us develop them into really great representative players."
"We've already got some great coaches onboard who are really keen to see these boys develop, and to see them through to success at this year's State Cup would be the ultimate reward for their hard work."
According to TTF Technical Director Kerrod Hall, while not currently offered, it is also envisaged that future iterations of the competition will feature a female division.
"We need to build our foundations first and because we already have strong numbers in our male 17-20 representative playing group, it makes the most sense to start there and get a competition up and running."
"This year serves as a "proof of concept" so it's the boys that will help get us started, but we are looking long-term so we definitely want to do the same thing for our girls in the future."
Player registrations are now open for the exciting new competition, and more information is available on the competitions page of the Townsville Touch Football website.