Look, there are not many things in Australian sport more exciting than a brand new club trying to convince talented young blokes to take a leap of faith. And that is exactly what the Tasmania Devils are doing right now, with the gusto of a side that genuinely believes it is offering something no established club can match.
The Devils recently wrapped up a special two-day showcase put together specifically for player managers, laying out their vision for the AFL's 19th club in impressive detail. The targets? The brightest lights from the 2024 draft class, young men who have only just begun to work out what their professional careers might look like.
Fair dinkum, the pitch itself is a fascinating one. Tasmania has been without top-level AFL representation for generations, and there is a genuine hunger on the island for a team to call their own. Any player who signs on early gets to be part of history, full stop. You cannot put a price on that kind of legacy.
Selling the Dream
Here's the thing about expansion clubs: the early years are almost always the hardest, and the players who commit at the beginning take on real risk. Established clubs offer certainty, proven systems, and in many cases a better short-term path to a premiership. The Devils cannot offer any of that yet, and the good people running this operation know it.
What they can offer is something different. Centre stage. The chance to be a foundation player for a club that an entire state has waited decades to see. The opportunity to have your name spoken in the same breath as the men who built West Coast, or Fremantle, or the GWS Giants from the ground up.
I reckon that sells itself to certain types of players, particularly the ones who want to define their careers on their own terms rather than fighting for a spot in a settled, competitive lineup at a club where the hierarchy is already established.
What the 2024 Class Can Offer Tassie
The 2024 draft produced some genuinely exciting talent, and the Devils are clearly doing their homework on which players fit the profile of a foundation club. Youth, flexibility, and a willingness to grow alongside a new football department are presumably high on the checklist.
It is a calculated approach rather than a scattergun one. Going directly to player managers with a structured, detailed showcase signals that the Devils are serious operators who understand how modern football recruitment works. They are not just waving the Tasmanian flag and hoping for the best.
At the end of the day, the real test will come when players have to make actual decisions. Sentiment and a slick presentation can carry you a long way in a room, but when a young man sits down with his family and weighs up his options, the calculus gets a lot more complicated.
You've got to hand it to the Devils for the professionalism of this approach, though. Expansion clubs that have come before them have not always been this methodical so early in the process. The organisation clearly wants to signal that this is a serious, well-resourced operation ready to compete.
Mate, if Tasmanian football does eventually reach the heights its supporters have dreamed of, these early recruitment pushes will be the chapters that historians look back on first. Whether the 2024 draft stars take the bait remains to be seen, but the Devils are putting their best foot forward. That much is clear.
Originally reported by The Sydney Morning Herald.